Professionals' guidance about spoken language multilingualism and spoken language choice for children with hearing loss

The purpose of this research was to investigate factors that influence
professionals’ guidance of parents of children with hearing loss regarding
spoken language multilingualism and spoken language choice.
Sixteen professionals who provide services to children and young people
with hearing loss completed an online survey, rating the importance
of a range of potential influences on the guidance they provide
to parents. These participants were invited to comment on the importance
of these influences. Participants included teachers of the deaf,
speech-language pathologists, special education teachers, psychologists,
auditory-verbal therapists, Auslan interpreters, and curriculum
coordinators. All participants had experience working with multilingual
families and reported that they would sometimes or always recommend
multilingualism for children with hearing loss, with fewer reporting
that they would sometimes recommend monolingualism. Professionals
placed greater importance on factors relating to family and
community considerations (e.g., family language models, communication
within the family, community engagement), and less importance
on organisational policy and children’s characteristics. This research
provides an initial insight into the factors that professionals consider
when guiding parents around spoken language and spoken language
multilingualism decision-making for their children with hearing loss.