LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION
Language is not just a means of communication – it carries identity, memory, culture, community knowledge, tradition, and worldview.
Yet despite Indigenous populations being the fastest-growing demographic in Canada, most speech therapy materials have been developed without meaningful consideration of the linguistic diversity found within Indigenous languages and dialects. As a result, critical gaps remain in how our professional field understands, supports, and serves Indigenous language speakers and culturally-diverse learners.
Recognizing the limitations of standardized assessment tools—which risk misinterpreting language differences as deficits—our team uses responsive and inclusive screening protocols that reflect the linguistic backgrounds of the communities we support. Our goal is to understand the sound systems and dialectical features unique to each language. This helps us recognize language influences on English speech patterns—ensuring our screens and interventions are accurate and responsive to linguistic diversity.
NVSS is deeply committed to the revitalization of First Nations languages and intentionally integrates key linguistic elements into our therapy programs and materials. We engage in partnerships with translators and language keepers to co-develop materials in a way that is community-directed, culturally-safe, and respectful of knowledge sovereignty.
We honor each community’s right to protect how their language is shared, used, and represented; language and cultural content is never extracted or reinterpreted. Instead, it is shaped in partnership through consent, trust, and cultural guidance. This ensures our resources reflect local insight - not outside assumptions - so that communities remain the leaders and voices behind their own language knowledge.
LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION IN SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY
We believe speech-language pathology has a vital role to play in advancing language revitalization. As communication specialists, our responsibility extends beyond supporting students with speech disorders—it’s about helping speakers connect with the full cultural-linguistic richness of their language. NVSS is reimagining a model of speech therapy that doesn’t just correct sounds—it elevates voices.
Through partnerships with community translators, we’ve begun building a growing Language Library housed within our NVSS TeachSpeech app. This library features community-specific resources designed to support children’s acquisition of their local languages while strengthening speech development in both Indigenous languages and English.
One of the most innovative features currently in development is our Animated Articulation tool—a cutting-edge, interactive visual model that demonstrates how individual sounds are formed in the mouth across different languages and dialects. Developed in collaboration with Elsevier, one of the world’s leading academic and medical publishers, this tool offers x-ray-style motion animations that illustrate the anatomical movements involved in sound production across entire language systems—including Indigenous dialects that have not been represented in conventional speech therapy materials.
NVSS is proud to be at the forefront of innovation in speech-language pathology, advancing tools and practices that honour linguistic diversity and support language revitalization.
We are honoured to be leading these efforts, setting a precedent for how speech therapy can evolve to reflect the voices, languages, and values of the communities it serves and represents.
LED BY THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE
This work would not be possible without the knowledge, time, and care shared by the translators and language keepers we are privileged to collaborate with. Their guidance ensures that the materials we create are not only linguistically accurate, but also respectful of each community’s values, teachings, and protocols.
We acknowledge the trust placed in us and are committed to co-creating resources in a way that protects the integrity of each language, honours community governance, and uplifts local expertise. These individuals are the heart of our language revitalization efforts—and we are grateful for their leadership and partnership.
To every language keeper and translator who has contributed to this vision:
thank you for your work, your wisdom, and your voice.