Expert Advice on Accounting for Dialect When Testing: 4 Videos – 9 Minutes

Evaluating multilingual and multidialectal students has never been more important—or more complex. Speech-language pathologists are expected to make confident diagnostic decisions while navigating dialect variation, cultural differences, and the realities of multilingual language development. Yet many traditional assessment approaches were not designed with these students in mind, making it difficult to distinguish a true language disorder from a language difference and increasing the risk of inequitable outcomes.

That is exactly why we invited Dr. Monique Mills from the University of Houston to present for SLP Impact. Dr. Mills is a nationally recognized expert in multilingual language assessment, dialect variation, and culturally responsive clinical practice. In this session, she shares practical, research-based strategies for conducting more equitable evaluations, interpreting assessment data through a culturally sustaining lens, and making confident clinical decisions that better reflect students' true communication abilities.

We caught four great clips from our interview that highlight some of the most common challenges SLPs face when assessing multilingual and multidialectal learners. Watch the short videos below, and then click at the bottom of the page to join us for the full presentation and earn CEUs.

What are some of the common challenges SLPs face when trying to distinguish a language difference from a true language disorder?

How can clinicians ensure that dialectal features are recognized as differences and not errors?

How can clinicians supplement standardized testing to make more equitable diagnostic decisions?

What unique insights can narrative samples provide about a student's language abilities?

Come learn more and earn CEUs!

Check out this course: Language Assessment in Multilingual Contexts: Dialect Variation, Cultural Responsiveness, and Equitable Clinical Decision-Making

As our schools become increasingly multilingual and multidialectal, accurate assessment requires more than simply administering tests and comparing scores. Dialect variation, cultural differences, and multilingual development all influence how students communicate, yet many traditional assessment practices fail to account for these factors. The result can be uncertainty in clinical decision making and, in some cases, inequitable identification of speech and language disorders. This session explores practical, evidence based strategies for distinguishing language difference from disorder while conducting evaluations that are both culturally responsive and clinically sound.

Join Monique T. Mills, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, from the University of Houston, as she shares research driven approaches to narrative assessment, dynamic assessment, culturally responsive interviewing, and dialect informed evaluation. Through engaging case examples and real assessment data, Dr. Mills demonstrates how to integrate multiple sources of information into confident, equitable clinical decisions.