Competencias profesionales para el trabajo con población multilingüe y multicultural en España: creencias, prácticas y necesidades de los/las logopedas

Background and aims The increase in the number of people who require bilingual and multilingual speech-language intervention justifies reviewing the current practices of Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs), who are ethically responsible for providing the best possible evidence-based intervention to the families with whom they work. There is, therefore, a clear need to competently serve populations with linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. The goal of this work was to document the beliefs, needs and practices of SLTs in Spain, as well as to obtain a deeper understanding of linguistic, cultural and professional competencies from the perspective of SLTs. Method Based on previous work in other countries, a questionnaire was designed to study multilingual and multicultural speech-language intervention in Spain. The sample consisted of 208 SLTs working with a diverse population across regions of Spain. Results Eighty-four percent of the survey respondents reported that they speak more than one language, but only 56% considered themselves bilingual; 77% reported having faced the challenge of working with multilingual people; 86% reported that they had not received training focused on this diversity and 92% reported that they lacked resources for conducting bilingual speech and language evaluations. Nevertheless, there were significant differences in the beliefs and practices when bilingual and monolingual SLTs were compared. Conclusions This work, with results similar to those of previous studies, provides a first step for designing methods, policies and resources to improve professional competencies and multilingual practices. Several challenges for SLTs facing this new social reality are discussed.