This themed issue of speech language and hearing journal focusses on audiology and speech sound disorders

Abstract

The fi rst three papers explore speech-language therapy with a speci fi c focus on practice in non-English speaking countries. First, the e ff ect of dialectal di ff erences on assessment was studied by McAllister, Hopf, and McLeod. The dialectal di ff erence, such as African American English, Australian Aboriginal English, or Singaporean English, has been considered essential to determine the presence and severity of speech sound disorders. The authors investigated Fiji English-speaking children and found that the mean percentage of consonant correct increased when Fiji English, rather than Australian English, was targeted. Second, Bathina, Garbaldi, and Venkatesh developed and validated the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) in Tamil, a language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The authors found moderate correlations between ICS ratings with percentages of consonants, vowels, and phoneme correct and cut-o ff scores to dis-tinguish the children with speech sound disorders from those with typical development. Validation of ICS in the Tamil language would help diagnose speech sound disorders in the spoken Tamil language. In