Women living in poverty are at increased risk for depression, especially during their childbearing years. Whereas poverty has known adverse effects on children's cognitive, social, and communication development, maternal depression may place these children at additional risk of developmental delays. The maternal sensitivity of mothers with and without depression and its relationship to maternal–child communicative patterns was investigated. We analyzed cross-sectional data on a sample of 23 African American and Caucasian mother–child dyads (13 with and 10 without depression) living in poverty, drawn from a prospective cohort study. Maternal depression was identified using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule–IV based on diagnostic criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). Language samples of maternal–child interaction were analyzed using measures of maternal sensitivity, speech acts, and mother–child interchanges. Significant differences in maternal sensitivity, as well as different patterns of relationships between sensitive and communicative behaviors, were found between the groups. Early childhood professionals need to be aware of the effects maternal depression has on communicative interactions and children's development.

With the U.S. population becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse, more and more professionals, such as speech—language pathologists, need to rely on the services of interpreters. Many interpreters have received little or no training, and certification or continuing education activities are often nonexistent. The brief training that is provided comes from a mainstream perspective designed to promote the employer's goals, and the interpreter's perspective is rarely considered. This article describes the current training and certification procedures in place for linguistic interpreters, the continuum of interpreter roles, and how interpreters' perspectives may influence the interpretive interaction.

This article describes caretaker interactive and communicative behaviors in various minority cultures in the context of independent/interdependent dimensions of the social world. Attention regulation, pragmatic input, and object engagement and play exemplify how caretakers from minority cultures interact with children differently than caretakers from American and European cultures. Understanding these behaviors can assist therapists in planning language-facilitation interventions for children with language delay or impairment.

Performance on language-based processing tasks may provide valuable information for separating typically developing Vietnamese preschool children from their peers with language disorders. Practitioners should consider linguistic characteristics of target stimuli. Comparisons should include task, receptive, expressive, and APT.

Children acquire communication skills within a socially and culturally influenced context. Communication professionals need to be aware of the ways cultural differences influence communication. This article describes the influence of cultural backgrounds on communication patterns along a continuum of behaviors. The purpose is to review relevant literature as an operating framework for professionals providing services to children and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

The number of individuals in the United States whose native language is Vietnamese has increased dramatically during the past decade. To work effectively with Vietnamese speakers, speech-language practitioners need to understand basic aspects of the Vietnamese language, especially the sound system, and how it differs from English. The purpose of this report is to provide basic information that can be used by practitioners to understand not only the differences between Vietnamese and English phonology, but also the influence of dialects. Characteristics of Vietnamese phonology and speech samples of three native speakers, representing the northern, central, and southern dialects, are used to illustrate information from the literature in this tutorial. Clinical Implications include considerations for assessment and intervention with Vietnamese individuals who may have a phonological disorder.

Adaptation of internationally adopted children to another culture and language has not been studied extensively. This study followed four infant girls from China during the 1st year postadoption, measuring vocabulary, gestural, social, communication, and symbolic behavior development each month. The children were also tested at 2 and 3 years postadoption. Results indicated that each child demonstrated variability in prelinguistic communication and symbolic behaviors and demonstrated a significant drop in communication and symbolic behavior scores during the 6th, 7th, or 8th month postadoption. Also, receptive English vocabulary developed early and expressive vocabulary developed later during the first 12 months postadoption, and it remains difficult to predict if a child will catch up in communication development with non-adopted peers during the 2nd or 3rd year postadoption. These data will help guide clinical assessment decisions for internationally adopted children.

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