I got the following request for comments from a friend, an audiologist, who received this through a Educational Audiology Association listserv. I think its great that audiologists are addressing the issue of children who come from different language groups and have a hearing impairment. We just need to get the right information to them. A speech language pathologist tried to educate this person, but the audiologist didn’t believe the speech language pathologist but went on their own “knowledge” rather than what we know from literature concerning second language learners. What would you say to this person?
“Dear colleagues,
I would like an opinion as to how school districts are handling this issue. We now receive many hearing impaired students who come from homes where English is not the native language. Depending on how we plan to program for the student (oral vs. TC vs. ASL), we routinely tell families that their child needs to be exposed to English at home, if possible, as it is the language that we will use at school and that their intervention/rehab will be based on developing auditory skills that are based on English phonemes, patterns, etc. An SLP friend told me the other day that her department now recommends to families that they develop a strong first language, even if it is not English, and then English secondly, even if the child has language delays (not hearing impaired). I disagreed with her re: HI kids as many kids depending on the degree of hearing loss don't have auditory memory for the language they are exposed to at home and don't have competence in the native language before they are introduced to English at school. Any thoughts?”
This audiologist’s ideas of language and communication are pretty restricted. Owens (2002) states that 60% of the information in face-to-face conversations may be transmitted through nonspeech means. Other ways of communicating include writing, drawing, and manual signing. Many Mexican youth if not educated with Spanish sign language, do develop their own signs that our used with family and their community. The hearing impaired may not “hear” the speech sounds of their culture, but they certainly learn the communication patterns of their family and community. This includes the nonlinguistic cues such as gestures, body posture, facial expression, eye contact, head and body movements, and physical distance or proxemics. Among Latino’s, if you can’t communicate with your eyes and understand what someone is trying to tell you with those rolling, smiling, or narrowing eyes, you’re definitely communicatively impaired. These nonlinguistic cues do vary with culture. It's as though, these children are not expected to have the ability to learn 3 language systems, English, the native language, and sign if necessary. They can do this, schools in Texas have done it and I’ve read of others in New York and New Jersey.
What concerns me most about the above letter is that the audiologist didn’t believe the SLP. The audiologist was convinced that the SLP and the district were wrong. I know that many of you are daily asked to defend your practice as a bilingual speech language pathologist. I don’t believe this has changed much over the years.
A couple of weeks ago I spent some time with a friend in Illinois who told me that their group of bilingual SLP’s were making gains until they got a new supervisor and then all of their credibility was rejected by the new administrator. What made it worse, is that when one of them was obviously respected by the other clinicians and teachers, the supervisor pulled the person out of the responsible position and placed the bilingual SLP into a less visible position within the district. I guess there’s nothing like jealously and insecurity to make changes that make administrators comfortable. What’s great about this scenario, is that the SLP will continue to help Latino children in the new and less visible situation. A dedicated clinician and one who is committed to children’s progress will always be in a position to help children, whether in a position of visibility or not.
Yesterday I spoke to a friend in New Mexico who told me about their struggle to get an endorsement through the state for bilingual SLP’s. The local district gave a $1500 stipend for bilingual professionals for several years. This year, that was taken away because the bilingual education teachers had a special endorsement to receive that special stipend but the other bilingual professionals, i.e., SLP’s, psychologists, social workers, etc. did not have an educational endorsement. The clinicians are ready to move with an attorney to regain the ground that they thought was theirs. The comment, “if this doesn’t work, a lot of us are leaving.” I hope not. I don’t see this situation as the end of a war it is just another battle. How are these clinicians going to get the recognition and reward for the additional skills and responsibilities that they carry each workday? Obviously, jealously and insecurity runs rampart in educational settings, whether its administration or another profession. It’s too bad that we can’t see that children need specialists of all types. The bilingual SLP is another one of those specialists.
Albuquerque Public Schools tried to get an endorsement through their school district and the clinicians thought if they all took “la Prueba” a Spanish proficiency test administered through the state, maybe they could get some type of stipend for passing this difficult test. Although 80% of the bilingual SLP’s have passed this proficiency measure, the district still doesn’t recognize or reward their bilingual SLP’s.
You’re probably wondering what I would say to the person who asked for comments about the hearing impaired child. I’ve learned over the years that it is difficult to change people’s attitudes and professional practices concerning children from culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Usually their own experiences and “myths” make up their knowledge about these children. A list of responses from a listserv won’t change this person’s ideas; the mind is made up.
My New Mexico friend told me that she believes that the only way to change people is to “shape” them the same way that we shape behaviors in our children. I kind of like that approach. I used to argue. That didn’t get me anywhere. Now I’ve learned that if the person talking to me is adamantly against anything I say, I’m not going to make any changes for children with that person that very moment. I have to retreat and find a different approach to get the changes I need for my kids. The goal is to make sure that children benefit not that I win the argument. I know that recognition is important to bilingual SLP’s and its important to monolingual SLP’s who are committed to great service to bilingual children. Maybe part of it is that we’re still not believed that we know something special or different from monolingual children that will help bilingual children.
It use to be that school districts were desperately trying to recruit speech language pathologists and if they found a bilingual clinician, the find was usually placed in the category of a “milagro.” I still don’t understand why it’s so hard for school districts and children’s hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, to reward their bilingual professionals. For those administrators who do reward their bilingual professionals, may all the blessings of heaven come down on them.
Dear Colleagues, any thoughts?
