Investigating the experiences of professionals working with bilingual children in Wales

This presentation reports on a project investigating the availability and suitability of Welsh-language resources for professionals working with Welsh-English bilingual children, with a particular focus on Speech Language Therapists (SLTs).A new language maintenance policy introduced in 2017 aims to increase the number of Welsh speakers and expand the use of Welsh across Wales (Welsh Government, 2017). The success of this policy heavily relies on introducing Welsh to younger generations. SLTs, alongside Primary School Teachers and Early Years Practitioners (EYPs), are often the first to work with children during language development, however, research on their experiences in this context remains limited.The study employed questionnaires exploring the current practices and experiences of these professionals within Wales. Likert scale and open-ended questions examined participants’ views on the availability, accessibility and suitability of Welsh medium resources to support their work with Welsh-English bilingual children. The questionnaires were distributed across Wales; after securing 36 responses, we are conducting in-depth follow up (ongoing) focusing exclusively on SLTs.Results illustrate that these professionals face challenges in their work with bilingual children, and that these challenges vary between professions. More SLTs said that they faced challenges compared to the Teachers and EYPs, with half (18/36) of the respondents of the first questionnaire stating that they faced challenges in bilingual assessments/teaching. Furthermore, most of the participants stated there was a lack of the necessary resources
that would enable them to provide the best support possible to bilingual children. Around a third of the respondents stated that they had to create their own Welsh speech assessment tool, while a third had to translate resources from English. The Welsh resources already available were more suited to Teachers and EYPs than SLTs, with many SLTs listing resources of various types that they had to create themselves.Results reveal the extent and types of support needed for professionals working with bilingual children in Wales. Recommendations arising from this study directly inform the development of policy and resources within Wales. Implications for bilingual Speech and Language Therapy more broadly and for the wider bilingualism research field are also discussed