I can't believe that the summer is almost over. Our escuelita de verano for our Spanish speaking preschoolers with speech and language impairments had its last session and parents were given final progress reports. It's always sad for me to see this time of year come to an end because it's so much fun for me. This year I focussed on articulation and phonological processes for the more severe children and we could see some progress. Ten weeks went by quickly, but as always, I looked to see if parents saw progress and they did. What was more important was the children's value of speaking Spanish and the parents' approval and support of our model.
There were a couple of questions that came up this summer from two different people, a student from Colorado and Sylvia Martinez from the ASHA National Office. Sylvia's question really needs the response from practicing clinicians, so I'll pass this on to you and you can write her at Smartinez@Asha.org. She stated that it is assumed that bilingual evaluations take longer, and wants to know how much time clinicians take to do an evaluation. Please write her and give her your estimate. The other question had to do with what does a bilingual evaluation report look like. I think, what she might have meant was what should a bilingual evaluation report contain.
Henriette Langdon (1992) stated the following should be written in the report:
- Reason for referral.
- Background information: indicate the sources of information (e.g., cumulative record, other staff's oral or written reports, parent/family personal or telephone interviews.)
- Social and family background such as *Place of birth and location *Sibling position and number of persons living with the student *Languages spoken to the student and by the student to different family members. *Parents' occupation, educational attainment, proficiency in English. *Language or learning difficulty in any other family member. *Any trips to the country of origin, including dates and lengths of stay. *Parents' perception of the student. *Students' experiences at home with literacy and opportunities for activities outside the home, such as trips to parks, museums, and outings.
- Health and developmental background
- School background *Specific programs that the student has attended. *Reading programs followed and modifications made to meet the student's needs. *School attendance record and any disruptions in education.
All of this is background information that should help you make a determination if there is another reason for the difficulty with language other than a language or language learning disorder. My recommendations for the report have to do with the procedures that are followed when testing. The following are my suggestions.
- Report any test adaptations. A standardized test that is changed in any manner is no longer the author's original work. Any changes should be documented so that repeated administration of the test instrument will provide information concerning the client's performance and progress and not the added variable of administering 2 different test instruments, one with adaptations and the other without.
- Report the nature of the evaluation. The report should state whether an interpreter was used for the testing and whether this interpreter was trained to administer the test. Interpreters are frequently called in to administer tests but their title was usually secretary or nurse assistant before becoming the interpreter. Some individuals are not capable or have the ability to do an excellent job of interpreting for a professional. A student's future is depending on the language proficiency of the interpreter assistant.
- The language of testing should also be reported, as well as the order of language. Langdon states that the stronger language should be tested first. I believe that the weaker language should be tested first. A learning effect might occur if you happen to use parallel tests first on the stronger language and then administer the test to the weaker language. You may get an inflated score for the weaker language.
- Report norms when appropriate. A test may be administered in the standardized procedure, but the norms may be inappropriate for the client being tested. This should be reported. When a test has been adapted, do not report the published norms. Norms that have been developed outside the United States are inappropriate for U.S. Hispanics who are exposed to English and are not living in a monolingual Spanish society. A test that is translated into Spanish is not the original test; therefore, the norms should not be reported for translated for translated instruments.
- Before reporting any scores, or describing the child's performance, I list the tests and procedures administered and then write a cautionary statement something to the following:
"The following tests were administered but are not normed for children from this student's background. Therefore, caution is used in the interpretation of the test results."
This statement is modified depending upon the test instruments used, child's background and age or any other variable that may have an effect on the child's performance.
I have seen some reports that have reference to articles, statements about what certain researchers recommend, in other words, the report becomes a vehicle to educate whoever reads the report. My opinion is that this is an inappropriate practice. I view the report as a legal document that will be used to determine whether a child is placed into a special education program. I would hate to see someone's quotes in a legal document and that document contested in court in a special hearing. These additions could be an addendum to the report, but not part of the report.
The last point that I would suggest for professionals is to use a common terminology. A bilingual evaluation is an evaluation of an individual's speech and language abilities in 2 languages. A Spanish evaluation is only of Spanish and an English evaluation is only for English.
An evaluation of speech and language for bilingual speakers is difficult. A Spanish evaluation or an English evaluation, I think are relatively easy compared to assessing the bilingual speaker. There are so many variables that need to be accounted for when completing the evaluation. I didn't mean to make this simplistic, but these recommendations are a start when you are trying to assess a language difference from a language disorder.
References:
- Kayser, H. (1993). Hispanic Culture. In D. Battle (Ed.) Communication disorders in multicultural populations (pp. 114-157). Boston: Andover Medical Publishers.
- Langdon, H., & Cheng, L. (1992). Hispanic children and adults with communication disorders. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen.
