The field of speech-language pathology has increasingly focused on appropriate, culturally sensitive service delivery to persons from multicultural backgrounds. Although this is a welcome and necessary focus for the field, its practitioners have neglected to conduct research and hold dialogues about a major culture affecting every ethnic and linguistic group: the culture of poverty. Clients from low-income backgrounds share certain common challenges and characteristics that speech-language pathologists need to be aware of. This article discusses these challenges and characteristics, and the author encourages members of the field to conduct research that has practical, clinical implications to assist speech-language pathologists who serve clients from low-income backgrounds.
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