ORCID

Abstract

PurposeThis commentary describes a multi-national project which addresses gaps in the design and delivery of health and education services in Arabic-speaking countries in relation to early language development, with a focus on Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories. This includes: (1) co-production with early years professionals and NGOs of approaches to support early language development; (2) development and standardisation of tools to identify monolingual and multilingual Arabic-speaking children at risk of poor language development; and (3) examination of language development in refugee communities.ResultThe importance of inter-professional partnership and the inclusion of families in planning support for oral language development is highlighted. Arabic versions of the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) Toddler were developed, and data collected from 1074 Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian monolingual infants aged 8–30 months. Data from 201 age-matched Palestinian infants in Lebanese refugee camps highlight inequalities resulting from limited maternal educational opportunities. Data from 230 multilingual Lebanese 2-year-olds enable the interpretation of CDI scores as a function of language exposure.ConclusionThis work contributes to the promotion of robust language development for all Arabic-speaking children. This commentary focusses on sustainable development goal (SDG) 3, SDG 4, SDG 10 and SDG 17.

Publication Date

2022-11-21

Publication Title

International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

Volume

25

Issue

1

ISSN

1754-9507

Acceptance Date

2022-01-01

Deposit Date

2023-03-20

Embargo Period

2023-03-21

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First Page

96

Last Page

101

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