Over the last few years, ASHA has stressed the importance of adapting the service delivery process to meet the needs of multicultural populations. As part of its Multicultural Action Agenda 2000, ASHA has adopted as a primary objective "a commitment to sociocultural diversity throughout the Association and professions, particularly in the areas of clinical practice, professional education and research." Part of the rationale for this objective is the recognition that "there are crosscultural differences in beliefs about health, disorders, and delivery of clinical services that can influence how an individual would either perceive a communication disorder or accept certain treatment procedures" (ASHA, 1991). As such, ASHA states that "service providers must be cognizant of such differences that could pose possible barriers to effective and appropriate clinical practice." There are a number of resources developed by ASHA and others which are designed to help service providers to recognize these differences and develop service delivery models which accommodate them.

The specific topics addressed by readings referenced within this factsheet include:

• ASHA policies with respect to the delivery of services to multicultural populations;
• Cross-cultural differences in beliefs about health, disorder, and illness that can impact on the service delivery process;
• Strategies for helping professionals to recognize how differences can impact on the service delivery process and develop service delivery models which address these differences;
• Current statistics on the number of multicultural/multilingual clients served by speech-language-hearing professionals.

ASHA Policies and Guidelines

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1991). Multicultural Action Agenda 2000. Asha, 33(5) , 39-41.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1989). Bilingual speech-language pathologists and audiologists. Asha, 30(5) , 93.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (1985). Clinical management of communicatively handicapped minority language populations. Asha, 27(6) , 29-32.

General Service Delivery Issues

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1989). Managing a bilingual program. Asha, 30(1) , 40-41.

Battle, D. (1993). Communication disorders in multicultural populations. Boston: Andover Medical Publishers.

Bebout, L. & Arthur, B. (1992). Cross-cultural attitudes toward speech disorders. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35(1) , 45-52.

Campbell, L., Brennan, D., & Steckol, K. (1992). Preservice training to meet the needs of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Asha, 34(2) , 29-32.

Campbell, L. R. (1994). Learning about culturally diverse populations. Asha, 36(6) , 40-41.

Campbell, L. R. (1992). Perceived competencies of speech-language pathologists employed in schools relative to providing services to culturally diverse children. Tejas, Fall/Winter, 18 , 31-34.

Cole, L. (1989). E Pluribus Pluribus: Multicultural imperatives for the 1990s and beyond. Asha, 31(9) , 65-70.

Kayser, H. (1995). An emerging specialist: The bilingual speech-language pathologist. In H. Kayser (Ed.), Bilingual speech-language pathology: An Hispanic focus. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Co.

Kreps, G. & Kunimoto, E. (1994). Effective communication in multicultural health care settings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Langdon, H. W. (1994). Meeting the needs of the non-English speaking parents of a communicatively disabled child. Clinics in Communication Disorders, 4 (4) , 227-236.

Lynch, E. & Hanson, M. (1992). Developing cross-cultural competence: A guide for working with young children and their families. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Compiled by the Multicultural Issues Board May 1996