Abstract:

Bilingualism is perceived as being a multifactorial and multidimensional domain, which raises the interest of many different disciplines, including the scientific field of speech and language therapy. Speech and language therapy give a great emphasis and focus on the relevance of the form, content and use of speech by the bilingual person, as well as the level of literacy and alphabetic understanding in both languages. Considering cases where a bilingual person presents speech and language disorders, a speech and language therapist will be required to plan, organize, carry out and administer a fully structured therapeutic intervention (including; diagnosis, assessment, counselling and treatment) demonstrating appropriate skills and capabilities. The current research aimed to investigate skills of Greek Cypriot speech and language therapists to provide efficient and successful interventions to bilingual children with speech and language disorders. The survey consisted of structured interviews involving 20 speech and language therapists who provide therapeutic interventions to bilingual children with speech and language disorders, selected through the Association of Registered Cypriot Speech Pathologists. The interviews were recorded for the purpose of thematically analyzing. The empirical findings of the survey revealed that participants, 20 Greek Cypriot speech and language therapists, who provide speech and language therapy for bilingual children with speech and language disorders coincide with the results of various other surveys and studies in other populations that were scientifically carried out in the past. Through the present study, the importance of various aspects has been emphasized such as the need of improvement of ongoing training and professional development.

Keywords:

Bilingualism, speech and language disorders, skills, speech and language therapists, ongoing training, professional development.