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the information presented about language use related to very few children. For example, each of the 12 languages listed as spoken in the Australian Capital Territory were only spoken by 1 child. This heterogeneity of languages is consistent with Canberra’s position as the nation’s capital and the many consulates and embassies located there. The current findings represent the most comprehensive information currently available about cultural and linguistic diversity of a nationally representative sample of Australian preschool children. These data should be interpreted in conjunction with an understanding of the demography of each speech pathologist’s local context, and can be used by speech pathologists, early years educators, and interpreters to guide allocation of resources for development of information, assessments, and interventions. Acknowledgments This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT0990588) and Jane McCormack provided research support. References American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA, 2010). Cultural competence in professional service delivery . Retrieved from www.asha.org Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2006a). 2006 Language spoken at home by sex – Australia (Cat. no. 2068.0). Canberra: Author. Retrieved from http://www. censusdata.abs.gov.au/ Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2006b). 2006 Census of population and housing – Fact sheets: Ancestry (Cat. No. 2914.0). Canberra: Author. Retrieved from http:// www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/C55 82A08BC4B3F39CA257313001469F9/$File/29140%20 fs-ancestry.pdf Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2006c). Proportion of people who speak a language other than English – Australia by state (Cat. No. 2063.0). Retrieved from http:// www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). Yearbook Australia, 2009–10 . Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/1301.0Feature+Article70120 09%E2%80%9310 Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) (2007). Growing up in Australia: The longitudinal study of Australian children . Retrieved, from http://www.aifs.gov.au/growingup/ Ballard, E., & Farao, S. (2008). The phonological skills of Samoan speaking 4-year-olds. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , 10 (6), 379–391. Bishop, D. V. M., & Adams, C. (1990). A prospective study of the relationship between Specific Language Impairment, phonological disorders and reading retardation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , 31 (7), 1027–1050. Gray, M., & Sanson, A. (2005). Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Family Matters , 72 (Summer), 4–9. Harrison, L. J., & McLeod, S. (2010). Risk and protective factors associated with speech and language impairment in a nationally representative sample of 4- to 5-year-old children, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research , 53 (2), 508–529. Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Berthelsen, D., & Walker, S. (2009). Literacy, numeracy and learning in school-

2.9%; parent 2: n = 77, 1.5%). There were missing data for 745 (15.0%) of parent 2’s responses. Discussion Understanding the demography of Australia’s children enables speech pathologists, early childhood educators, and interpreters to plan services for children who speak languages other than English. These data highlight the diversity of languages represented in Australian 4- to 5-year-olds and their parents. These nationwide data concur with the distribution of languages reported in a study that has examined children’s language skills within the state of Victoria. Nicholls, Eadie, and Reilly (in press) found that 31 different languages were spoken by children at age 3 within the Early Language in Victoria Study, which were similar to the 35 languages that were listed in the current study as being spoken across Australia. The importance of examining data for children, instead of relying on the Australian national census data, is highlighted in two ways: first by considering primary languages spoken and second by considering languages used by state. The most common primary languages other than English spoken by the children in the current study were: Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Greek, and Mandarin. These were in a different in order compared with the home languages spoken by the entire Australian population: Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Mandarin and Vietnamese (ABS, 2006a). Notably, although Italian was the most common primary language other than English spoken by the Australian population, it was not a common first language spoken by the children in the current study. However, Italian was the most common additional language spoken by the children in the current study. There may be a difference in the proportion of speakers of languages other than English between the general Australian population and 4- to 5-year-old children in each state. According to the publicly available data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2006c), the proportion of Australians who were 5 years of age or older who spoke a language other than English was as follows: the highest proportion (26–56%) was in New South Wales, Victoria, and Northern Territory, followed by 16–25% in South Australia and Western Australia, 4–9% in Queensland, and only 3–4% in Tasmania (ABS, 2006c) (see Figure 2). Extrapolating data from the current study for 4- to 5-year- olds (by subtracting the number of children who spoke English), there are no states where 26–55% of children spoke a language other than English as their primary language. The states where 16–25% spoke languages other than English as their primary language are in order: New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, then 4–9% in South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland, with less than 2% in Tasmania. By examining these data from children, future national trends of languages used in the Australian community may be predicted; for example, Italian may not be a major language spoken in Australia in the future. These data may also provide information regarding linguistic support for required for children’s transition to school, in order to facilitate speech, language and literacy acquisition by the critical age (Bishop & Adams, 1990; Nathan et al., 2004). One limitation of this study was that, although the data were from a nationally representative sample of 4- to 5-year-old children and responses were statistically weighted, it is important to acknowledge that some of

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