Changing How Speech-Language Pathologists Think and Talk about Dialect Variation

In this article, we argue for a change in how professionals in speech-language pathology think and talk about dialect diversity in the US and elsewhere. Our recommendation is evidence-based and reflects a change we have made to better serve children and advocate for the field of communication disorders. The change involves replacing the phrase dialect vs. disorder with disorder within dialect. While this change in wording may seem superficial, it generates dramatically different types of conversations a professional can have with others about childhood language impairment across different dialects of English.