title: Intervention with linguistically diverse preschool children: a focus on developing home language(s).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article addresses a series of questions that are critical to planning and implementing effective intervention programs for young linguistically diverse learners with primary language impairment (LI). Linguistically diverse learners in the United States include children whose families speak languages such as Spanish, Korean, Cantonese, Hmong, Vietnamese, or any language other than, or in addition to, English.
  
  
  METHODS
  A narrative review of the relevant literature addresses clinical questions including (a) Why support the home language when it is not the language used in school or the majority community? (b) Does continued support for the home language undermine attainment in a second language? (c) Should we support the home language when it includes the code switching or mixing of two traditionally separate languages? and (d) What are some strategies that can be used to support the home language when it is a language that the speech-language pathologist (SLP) does not speak?
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SLPs should provide services to linguistically diverse preschool-age children with LI in a manner that effectively supports the development of the home language. Parent and paraprofessional training along with peer-mediated models of intervention are presented as two possible methods for facilitating the home language in children with LI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA. kohne005@umn.edu
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kohnert
authors.forename: Dongsun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yim
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nett
authors.forename: Pui Fong
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Kan
authors.forename: Lillian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duran
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D019303:Multilingualism; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D014705:Verbal Behavior