The development of a bilingual phonology assessment

This paper describes the development of a phonological assessment procedure for children speaking Mirpuri, Punjabi or Urdu in combination with English. The Rochdale Assessment of Mirpuri Phonology (RAMP) was produced in response to the practical difficulties of a monolingual therapist wishing to assess a child's phonological systems across all languages used. The assessment is currently being used both as a clinical tool within the Rochdale Healthcare NHS Trust Speech and Language Therapy Department and as a research tool in collaboration with the Department of Speech, University of Newcastle to provide further data on patterns of bilingual phonological acquisition. Outcomes include therapy targeted more accurately at deficits within each phonological system.