Multilingual Evaluations: Elevate Your Assessments Using Converging Evidence with Emily Sweet

Guest: Emily Sweet, MS, CCC-SLP

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In this episode of School of Speech, host Carolyn Dolby, MS, CCC-SLP, is joined by Emily Sweet, MS, CCC-SLP, to tackle one of the most complex and high-stakes areas of school-based practice: evaluating multilingual children with accuracy and confidence.

Designed for both bilingual and monolingual SLPs, this conversation introduces the converging evidence framework proposed by Castilla-Earls et al. (2020) and explains how multiple sources of data work together to support sound clinical decision-making. Rather than relying on a single test score, Carolyn and Emily walk through how to build a comprehensive evaluation protocol that reflects real-world language use.

Topics include ethnographic interviewing, language sampling, nonword repetition tasks, and dynamic assessment, with clear explanations of how each contributes unique and meaningful information. The episode also addresses ethical and effective approaches for monolingual SLPs who are assessing bilingual or English learner students when a bilingual clinician is not available.

By the end of the episode, listeners will leave with concrete tools, resources, and strategies they can immediately apply to strengthen multilingual evaluations and confidently distinguish language difference from language disorder.

About the Guest: Emily is a bilingual SLP and a clinical associate professor at the Institute for Speech-Language Pathology at Widener University. She earned her MS in Speech Language Pathology with a bilingual extension from Teachers College, Columbia University, and worked for 15 years, first as a hospital-based SLP and then as a school-based SLP. Emily currently specializes in clinical education and issues related to culturally responsive care in pediatric and adult populations.

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