Abstract
As one part of an international survey by the Multilingual Affairs Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, this study attempted to determine how South African speech-language therapists provide language intervention for multilingual language impaired children. By using a qualitative descriptive survey method, various aspects of this intervention were investigated. Twenty-five questionnaires were completed by speech-language therapists throughout the country. Results indicate that the majority of therapists are providing language therapy to their multilingual language impaired clients in a child's second language (L2) only, which is generally English. This appears to be because of parental insistence and a lack of another common language between therapist, child and parent, paired with a shortage of trained interpreters. Furthermore, it was discovered that only a minority of the speech-language therapists in this study are providing parents with advice regarding a child's first language (L1) maintenance despite the majority of parents' wishes to maintain their child's L1. In addition these subjects are neglecting to collaborate with teachers on increasing the self-esteem of their multilingual language impaired children and conveying attitudes of respect towards the child's L1 and culture. Implications of this study are presented and areas of further research are recommended.