Provides communication-disorders specialists with a basic introduction to the ethnographic method as a way to serve clients and students from diverse cultures with complex disabilities. Gives suggestions for its use as a clinical tool to study culture, context, and communication from a client-centered perspective. (Author/CR)

This introduction to a series of five articles in a clinical forum outlines the forum theme, that culturally/linguistically diverse children can be validly and reliably assessed and treated for communication disorders. The introduction notes the growing population of minority children in the United States and the critical shortage of minority…