The professions represented by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association are serving a wide range of populations as diversity in the United States continues to grow rapidly. This article offers tentative guidance for and invites an open dialogue with other researchers interested in culturally sensitive research issues. Specifically, as the professions adopt an increasingly global perspective, it is likely that researchers will need to acquire skills in conducting research within culturally diverse populations. Within this article, research scenarios are discussed, in particular, methods for survey, interview, and focus groups. Topics such as preparing a research instrument, gaining access to clients, and effectively utilizing interpreters are presented. In brief, this article is designed as a beginning conversation about an increasingly important topic: conducting culturally sensitive research in communication disorders.

A number of factors have been identified as important to the retention and success of minority students in American higher education. Foremost among these factors are college experience variables like academic integration and social integration. The purpose of this study was to model the relationship between college experience and academic performance for minority students enrolled in an American institution of higher learning. Using structural equation modeling techniques, a model of the college experience consistent with past research was proposed and tested. The results provide support for the proposed model. Implications of the findings for improving research and practice in the field of educational management are outlined.

Focus groups consisting of seven family members of children with disabilities provided information for identifying and understanding issues influencing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) practices within a Mexican American community. The authors used a content analysis of the conversations to identify seven general perspectives: (a) Children understand the nonverbal communication of persons around them; (b) aided techniques are useful outside of the home; (c) families have great respect for professionals; (d) there is a need to focus on the human condition; (e) there is a preference for shared responsibility between the extended family members and professionals; (f) emphasis should be placed on the performance of simple tasks; and (g) devices in Spanish are needed. Emphasis is placed on qualitative research strategies that can provide cross-cultural awareness for practitioners providing AAC services.

Increased attention is being given to strategies for the least biased language assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse children for whom English is a second language. One main reason is the concern that the administration of language tests in English using current norms is inappropriate for students whose dominant language is other than English. This article discusses a variety of alternative assessment approaches, including renorming a test for the specific population being tested, using dynamic assessment techniques to assess a child's modifiability, using other nonstandardized measures, and modifying standardized tests. Each of these alternatives has advantages and disadvantages. In addition, results from a preliminary investigation using modifications of four subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Third Edition (CELF-3) are presented to further the dialogue about language assessment issues. Twenty-eight bilingual Latino children, ages 8 and 9 years, were administered the CELF-3 and the modified version of the test in counterbalanced order. Clinical implications for creating least biased language assessment strategies are included as the authors provide a tutorial on the broad topic of language assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse children for whom English is a second language.Considerable attention has been given in recent years to the least biased language assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse children for whom English is a second language

There is a need for more bilingual and/or minority speech-language pathologists to serve an increasingly diverse population. To recruit and retain minority students, faculty in university training programs should increase their awareness of minority students’ needs and expectations. This paper reviews the literature pertaining to the factors relating to minority students’ success in higher education and reports the results of a survey designed to assess students’ perceptions of factors related to academic success. It also delineates how faculty of the Department of Communicative Disorders at California State University, Fullerton, used these results to improve the recruitment and retention of minority students. Because there is a dynamic relationship between faculty, students, and institutional requirements, other communicative disorders departments are encouraged to use this survey to better understand and respond to their students’ needs.