Bilingual Speech Sound Screen with Punjabi Heritage Children

Bilingual Pakistani speakers have differing error patterns for speech sounds and it is not best practice to assess bilingual speakers only in English. This assessment is designed to elicit 21 words in the child's mother tongue and provides target transcriptions and charts indicating the normal phonological development for this population.

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Many children from the Pakistani heritage community are monolingual mother tongue speakers prior to school or nursery entry. Bilingual speakers may have differing error patterns for speech sounds across both or all languages they speak and therefore it is not best practice to assess bilingual speakers only in English. This assessment is designed to elicit 21 words in the child's mother tongue (Mirpuri, Punjabi or Urdu), using simple, ethnically appropriate line drawings. It provides target transcriptions and charts indicating the normal phonological development for this population. Stimulus questions in Mirpuri, Punjabi and Urdu are included to facilitate data collection by speech language therapists who have no knowledge of the languages being assessed. The Pakistani heritage community is the second largest minority ethnic community in England and the population is widely dispersed throughout the country. Consequently, this assessment is an essential resource for all speech language therapists working with children from this background.