Summer hasn't quite hit New Mexico but I've already taken my vacation. The semester ended for me mid-May, so I left for 12 days for Guanajuato, Mx. The trip was partly research and mostly rest. I slept for 12 hours a day, spent my afternoons taking dancing and music lessons and evenings walking the Central area of the city where there are museums, plazas, and beautiful walkways. But the mornings were filled with work.
I was fortunate enough to make contact with the State of Guanajuato's Special Education Department and they were gracious and generous to me by putting me in contact with local especialistas de audicion y lenguaje (specialists in hearing and language). A met 4 clinicians and observed them as they worked with preschool children with a variety of speech and language disorders.
Mexico has gone through some change over the last 5 years. The country mandated Special Education for children in 1995 and encourages integration or inclusion as we call it. This is a difficult transition because trying to educate children with special needs is new for Mexican educators. In some small towns children with Downs syndrome have only in the last few years begun to receive special services. There is a national effort to make integration work. Teachers are provided workshops on the education of children with disabilities and special educators are changing their model of service provision from pull out to classroom intervention. Of course change is difficult for everyone. Teachers may not understand the needs of children with special problems in learning and special educators have the task of learning to work in a classroom and somehow encourage the cooperation of the teacher. Sounds familiar to me.
La Secretaria de Educacion Publica (SEP) Y el Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion, estimated that near 7.9 million Mexicans required special education but services are far from adequate for these individuals. La Organizacion Mundial de la Salud estimated that 8.8 percent of the population has some form of disability. Their estimates include: deficiencia mental 2.25 millones; trastornos de audicion y lenguaje, 540 mil; impedimentos neuromotores, 540 mil; trastornos visuales, 90 mil; problemas de lenguaje, 2 millones 700 mil, y de aprendizaje, un millon 800. In actuality, SEP states that 303, 509 children receive services: 36,790 con deficiencia mental; 7,316 por trastornos de audicion y lenguaje; neuromotores, 1,479; de aprendizaje, 162,847; de conducta, 2,709; de lenguaje, 15,019; por doble terapia de aprendizaje y lenguaje, 8,729, y por intervencion temprana 9,174. Services are not at maximum level for children in Mexico.
Besides being fascinated that in the United States there is a need for bilingual clinicians, I was also asked frequently what was my opinion of "la integracion." Well, it depends. It works with some children and with others it may not work. There's also the variables of teacher and special educator collaboration and whether these professionals can work together to benefit children. In some parts of the country there are still schools for the severe-profound and multiply disabled. Integration of these children is a challenge since the philosophy may not be that of education but rather care taking. Until 2 years ago, preschool children with speech and language problems were identified in preschool classrooms and then parents were responsible for taking their children to Centros where the child was evaluated and then provided therapy. Transportation was the parents' responsibility. Now children stay in their preschools and therapists provide the service in the classroom or through pull-out service.
This integration of special needs children has also hit specialists in the area of philosophical differences among clinicians. Among the clinicians I spoke to there was a difference in how therapy should be carried out. They differed in that the traditional model of therapy which includes phonology and syllableness, are now replaced with the theoretical model of effective communication in the classroom. Through communication in the classroom, the child will hear correct models and develop correct phonology and syllableness. It's difficult for them to work on speech sound production in a classroom with 40 preschoolers and rooms without carpet. I think maybe that's why I was asked "How do you make integration work?"
If I were in their situation, I'm not sure how I would address this other than offer private therapy. One clinician I spoke to did just this. She provides articulation therapy to children in her home. I'm going to pass along her 15 years of articulation therapy practice in Mexico. The following are her suggestions for /r/ and /rr/.
When a child does not use the /r/ or /rr/ she suggests that you begin with /r/ blends before working on the initial /r/ and then the medial and final /r/. Gracias a Martha Mendoza, Licenciada en Educacion Especial de Problemas de Audicion y Lenguaje, Guanajuato, Mx.
"Este fonema es de los mas dificiles de corregir, dependera mucho de los ejercicios previos de lengua que se hayan hecho el logro de el, po lo que se deja hasta el final del trabajo de terapia. Se le mostrara claramente la posicion frente al espejo. Si el nino es capaz de decir: tra, tre, tri, tro, tru." Repetir: Tra, tra, tra=85=85.. Trara, trara, trara=85=85=85.. Trarara, trarara, trarara, trarara=85=85=85 Tra-rara-t-rara t-rara=85=85=85=85=85 Rara-rara-rara=85=85=85=85.. Ra=85ra=85.ra=85.ra=85=85=85. "Para ejercitar con mas facilidad el fonema se buscara dentro de los ejercicios para lengua aquellos que estimulen la vibracion de la lengua en la protuberancia alveolar. Pegar recortes con palabras que lo contengan. Las restantes posiciones se eran trabajando conforme se vayan logrando las anteriores. /rr/ inicial." ramo, rana, raton, rabano, rosa, regalo, reloj, rio, riso, etc.
/rr/ media o,e,I,u, a /rr/ con a, e, I, o, u
Se pegaran recortes de palabras que contengan el fonema. Se sugieren las siguientes palabras: Guitarra, Zorra, Borrego, Perro, Burro, Jarra, Barra, Gorro, Cerro, Carro, etc.
Our neighbors in Mexico who practice as speech and language clinicians have a formidable task! There are not enough clinicians to do the work that is needed for the children with disabilities. I can truly understand when I think about the number of bilingual clinicians and the number of children needing services in the United States. We're just as desperate as our neighbors.
