Working with Russian-speaking clients: implications for speech-language assessment

Working with Russian-speaking clients: implications for speech-language assessment

United States boasts an impressive Russian-speaking population. Numerous Russian-Americans live in various parts of the country with large concentrations in states such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, California, and Florida, with smaller numbers found in most of the remaining states. According to the 2010 United States Census the number of Russian speakers was 854,955, which made Russian the 12th most spoken language in the country (link to statistics).

Given the above, it is very likely that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) will encounter their share of Russian-speaking clients during the course of their career. Hence, the aim of this post is to provide some suggestions regarding assessment of bilingual Russian-American birth-school age population in order to assist SLPs with determining whether the assessed child presents with a language difference, insufficient language exposure, or a true language disorder.

I would like to begin by discussing some common Russian-American child-rearing practices pertinent to bilingual language development. Many Russian-American families want their children to know and speak Russian in addition to English and often take special efforts to unsure that this happens. For One common language learning practice in many Russian-American families is to speak only Russian to the children until they reach preschool/early school age, and English is introduced to them in school. Furthermore, families, in which one parent doesn’t speak Russian, often tend to utilize the one parent/one language approach and expose their children to Russian and English simultaneously. Even after the children begin attending school and learning English, many families will continue to support Russian by sending them to Russian speaking schools on the weekends for enrichment activities or Russian-speaking camps in the summer.

Thus, some Russian-American children entering preschool may present with very limited English exposure. In order for the speech-language pathologists to determine whether these children present with insufficient language exposure or true language impairment, some knowledge regarding the differences between the English and Russian languages is recommended.

Assessing articulation/phonology: