Dialectical Competency Considerations

As a bilingual Spanish speaking therapist, I have the pleasure of working with families from many different backgrounds. I learned the Spain’s Castilian dialect of Spanish – Castellano – though most families I word with have backgrounds from Latin America. This means differences ranging from accent, basic vocabulary, slang terms, grammar tenses, polite/rude terms, cultural expectations, etc.

When I first got started, I felt this immense (self-induced) pressure to modify my own accent and pronunciations, relearn grammar and vocabulary and essentially be competent in all dialects of Spanish. No small task.

But then it hit me – if I encounter a family that has a different regional American dialect or accent, I don’t change how I speak English to them. If I were to go to England or Australia, I wouldn’t force change my own accent. Sure, over time, regional pronunciations can permeate a person, but trying to do it inorganically would be inauthentic and probably incorrect. So why was I placing this pressure on myself to master all dialects of my second language when this isn’t something I’d do in my native language?

I took a step back and considered, from the English perspective, what changes I’d realistically make. If a vocabulary word came up that a child doesn’t understand, I’d check in with them (or the parent) to ask what they call it and make note for future reference. So working with Spanish clients, I tell a parent to just let me know if I’m using a vocabulary word that they won’t understand or isn’t typical for them – they won’t offend me, I just want to be sure I’m supporting the child. I’ll make note of these relevant differences to each child, but don’t categorically try to map out entire language dialects.

Another thing I’ve come to recognize is that there are a LOT of synonyms in a language. We can say “it’s on the ground” or “it’s on the floor” interchangeably. “Pick one” or “choose one” mean the same thing. Do I probably use one term more than another? Sure. If I heard the other one, would it sound off or incorrect (or wrong) ? Not at all. So just because the child or parent has a different “go to” than I do, doesn’t mean that I need to make a big modification. If they used a synonym in English, I honestly might not even notice, let alone feel like I needed to adjust my whole vocabulary.

Sometimes I feel guilty when I don’t catch something a parent has said because of their accent – I’m supposed to be the bilingual therapist, I’m supposed to understand, I’m not supposed to need to ask for a repeat. But that’s also completely normal in English. If someone comes in with a deep southern accent or a Scottish accent, I might not catch every word. Even when someone speaks my same dialect, sometimes I don’t hear or don’t catch it. It’s ok to ask for a repeat, rather than have a communication breakdown.

There are a few ground rules I tend to stick with – I try my very best to implement the “ustedes” instead of “vosotros” because I know this tense is specific to Spain. Certain vocab words I’ve learned are actually slang or offensive in other dialects, I try to steer clear from, even if it feels natural to me. And I do my best to keep the /c/ and /z/ phonemes closer to /s/ production than /th/, as this is speech therapy after all and while it’s standard pronunciation for Spain Spanish, it’s a lisp in Latino Spanish. That’s pretty much it! The rest just varies child to child, and as long as I’m open and honest, I’ve never encountered big issues with navigating individual vocabulary preferences.