Sociocultural Factors Affecting Vocabulary Development in Young South African Children.

Sociocultural influences on the development of child language skills have been widely studied, but the majority of the research findings were generated in Northern contexts. The current crosslinguistic, multisite study is the first of its kind in South Africa, considering the influence of a range of individual and sociocultural factors on expressive vocabulary size of young children. Caregivers of toddlers aged 16 to 32 months acquiring Afrikaans (n = 110), isiXhosa (n = 115), South African English (n = 105), or Xitsonga (n = 98) as home language completed a family background questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) about their children. Based on a revised version of Bronfenbrenner's (1977) ecological systems theory, information was obtained from the family background questionnaire on individual factors (the child's age and sex), microsystem-related factors (the number of other children and number of adults in the child's household, maternal level of education, and SES), and exosystem-related factors (home language and geographic area, namely rural or urban). All sociocultural and individual factors combined explained 25% of the variance in expressive vocabulary size. Partial correlations between these sociocultural factors and the toddlers' expressive vocabulary scores on 10 semantic domains yielded important insights into the impact of geographic area on the nature and size of children's expressive vocabulary. Unlike in previous studies, maternal level of education and SES did not play a significant role in predicting children's expressive vocabulary scores. These results indicate that there exists an interplay of sociocultural and individual influences on vocabulary development that requires a more complex ecological model of language development to understand the interaction between various sociocultural factors in diverse contexts.

Health resources for South Africa: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare is more effective when people are treated in their own language with respect for their culture. However, information about the availability and nature of health resources is fragmented and studies suggest few assessments, screening tools, or other health resources in many of South Africa's languages. AIM: This scoping review identified health resources written in the eleven official languages of South Africa for health professionals to use for patient assessment and management. METH ODS: Databases were searched and information about resources collated and analysed. RESULTS: Two-hundred-and-fifty two unique resources were found (444 items, if different language versions of the same resource were counted separately). All official languages were represented. The most widely used (excluding English) were Afrikaans (118 resources), IsiXhosa (80) and IsiZulu (55). CONCLUSION: Development of more health resources and critical evaluation of their validity and reliability remain important. This study contributes a preliminary database for South African health professionals, ultimately promoting improved service delivery.

Transcribing and Transforming: Towards Inclusive, Multilingual Child Speech Training for South African Speech-Language Therapy Students.

OBJECTIVE: Phonetic transcription may encourage engagement with language diversity in multilingual settings. We describe how transcription can be used to help South African speech-language therapy (SLT) students engage with the many languages spoken in their country. Objectives were to describe (a) the local context, (b) transcription in the curriculum, and (c) participant observations from staff facilitating the Child Speech course. METHOD AND MATERIALS: A case study approach was used to investigate teaching and learning transcription in a real-life context, the undergraduate second-year Child Speech course in an SLT programme. Document review of curriculum and university documents, national policies, and international best practice guidelines took place, together with participant observations from facilitators. RESULTS: We describe 4 activities that show how transcription skills can be developed while introducing local languages into the curriculum. These activities give students the opportunity to develop transcription skills for a range of local languages, while at the same time encouraging them to learn the languages, construct communal resources, and promote a problem-solving attitude to their practice. CONCLUSION: Calls to transform higher education in South Africa and "decolonise" curricula are key drivers underpinning this work. Transcription may be a useful tool in preparing students to practise in a multilingual context.

Health resources for South Africa: A scoping review

Background: Healthcare is more effective when people are treated in their own language with respect for their culture. However, information about the availability and nature of health resources is fragmented and studies suggest few assessments, screening tools, or other health resources in many of South Africa's languages.Aim: This scoping review identified health resources written in the eleven official languages of South Africa for health professionals to use for patient assessment and management.Methods: Databases were searched and information about resources collated and analysed.Results: Two-hundred-and-fifty two unique resources were found (444 items, if different language versions of the same resource were counted separately). All official languages were represented. The most widely used (excluding English) were Afrikaans (118 resources), IsiXhosa (80) and IsiZulu (55).Conclusion: Development of more health resources and critical evaluation of their validity and reliability remain important. This study contributes a preliminary database for South African health professionals, ultimately promoting improved service delivery

South African English Speech Development: Preliminary Data from Typically Developing Preschool Children in Cape Town.

English is one of eleven official languages in South Africa, but there is limited information on children's acquisition of English and other languages in this context. This paper describes speech development in 308 children aged 3;0-5;11 acquiring South African English in Cape Town. The study focused on English speech acquisition, although children were grouped by language background into monolingual, isiXhosa bilingual, Afrikaans bilingual and trilingual groups. The primary objective was to describe phonetic and phonological acquisition (percentage consonants and vowels correct (PCC and PVC); phonetic inventory and phonological processes) by children's age and language background. As a secondary objective we described the prevalence of speech disorders in the sample using Dodd's (2005) framework. The Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology was used to assess participants with modified scoring criteria appropriate for the context. Phonological processes and inventories were broadly comparable to normative data for English speech acquisition documented in the literature, and a progression was observed with increasing age. PCC and PVC were similar for children within age bands despite different language backgrounds. Bilingual children showed aspects of English phonological development linked to their L1, and some differences in phonological processes were observed. Approximately 9% of children (n = 28) had speech difficulties, with 75% of this group having a speech delay. The study highlights the importance of adapting speech assessments for use with populations that differ from the originally intended audience. This work contributes to knowledge of typical speech development in South Africa and in multilingual contexts more generally.

The acquisition of Setswana segmental phonology in children aged 3.0-6.0 years: A cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: This paper describes typical speech development of Setswana. Although there is information on Setswana phonology, very little is known about the acquisition of segmental phonology in this language. METHOD: An assessment tool was devised to collect speech samples from 36 first language Setswana-speaking children aged 3.0-6.0 years in the North-West Province of South Africa. This study describes the acquisition of consonants, vowels, syllable structures and phonological processes at various ages. RESULT: Findings indicate a relatively early acquisition of consonants, although trill /r/ continues to develop after 6.0 years, particularly in the penultimate syllable. Phonological features such as rounding develop in the later pre-school years. Findings also suggest that girls may achieve accuracy before boys. The older group of children presented with fewer phonological processes. Processes found in the speech of younger children included deletion of syllables, gliding, assimilation and simplifying complex words. CONCLUSION: These findings are discussed in relation to normative data from other languages, in particular to those belonging to the same language group. Knowledge of Setswana development will help Speech-Language Pathologists working with Setswana-speaking children to identify and manage phonological difficulties in this population. The results contribute to an increasing body of locally relevant information on typical phonological development.