From the Hart

Which Way to Go

May 2003

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Hope you enjoy the day and festivities that are around the nation for this Mexican holiday. I'll probably make some green enchiladas to celebrate. I celebrated yesterday with friends at a restaurant. We played a game on Latino facts and not so facts. Remember, this is the first event of this kind for this group of people. I asked them questions to help them understand my background. Such as name two baseball players on the St. Louis Cardinals team who are Latinos. Of course we discussed that the Puerto Ricans definitely are Latinos. I guess they thought you had to be Mexican to be Latino. Even had someone misspell ?Cinco.? It was all in fun.

It is the end of the semester and I'm developing my final examination for a graduate class in assessment and intervention in multicultural populations and grading final projects. The exam is the usual list of questions that I hope students will be able to respond to in a comprehensive manner. I always get nervous at this time because I wonder if I've done my job. I wonder if I've relayed the message accurately and made sure that these students understand their responsibilities and roles with children and adults who speak other languages. I do my best and then I hope the students do their best. The major difference this time, is that I don't have any bilingual students in the class. The major role I played this semester is convincing these students that they can provide services to children who are culturally and linguistically diverse.

The final project is a case study. I give the students details about the target child, usually test scores, and then the students build a report, that either determines the child to be language impaired, or typical. The idea is to have the graduate student develop facts from the child's home, school, and community, that would indicate that the child is either language disordered or not. Hopefully, they get the idea, that tests alone, do not tell you whether a bilingual child is language impaired. I still get questions from students and practicing clinicians about which test is the best one to use with bilingual children. I still tell folks that administering a test to a child without looking at other background information can determine any bilingual child as language disordered. I think that we're still too tied to tests, and still too scared to make decisions on the basis of the fact-finding information we glean from observations of children and interviews with families and teachers.

You might take a look at an article that just came out in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. "Speech-Language Pathologists" Beliefs about Language Assessment of Bilingual/Bicultural Individuals', Vol. 12, No. 1, February, 2003. The article reports on a survey of speech/language pathologists who are monolingual, bilingual (academic/learned at school), and bilingual (cultural/native or study abroad) and their views on bilingual assessments of individuals. The results were predictable in assessments. The bilinguals (cultural) were more confident than the bilinguals (academic), and the bilingual (academic) were more confident than the monolinguals in assessing bilingual individuals. What I thought was interesting was that 40% of the participants reported that they would be more conservative in recommending language therapy for a bilingual than a monolingual child, because of the clinicians' own lack of knowledge of bilingual issues. So the issue is really intervention. We focus on the assessment, but we're timid to say that a child needs intervention in both languages. This is a problem for the profession and children. We can have great assessment protocols, but we're less likely to recommend intervention for bilingual children. I wonder if part of the clinicians' beliefs is due to school district policy, or maybe lack of a bilingual workforce. If you know that there isn't a clinician available to provide the service, then maybe you're less likely to recommend the service. There's a lot to be done in assessment and more in intervention with bilingual children.

I also gave asked the students to write a diagnostic evaluation for a preschooler. After I graded the papers I made some notes for the students. There are the comments of most frequently occurring "errors."

MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: In Spanish, norms have been out for years, but not published. Paul H. Brooks to publish norms in May, 2003. Important to remember that not appropriate for school age and preschoolers who are talking in 3 to 4 word utterances.

Preschool Language Scale-4: Spanish version is normed on Spanish speakers in U.S. So use it as a standardized test for Spanish speaking preschoolers.

Assessment of Phonological Processes-Spanish version: this isn't a translated version of the English APP. It is developed for Spanish speaking children. You use this when the child is unintelligible, and usually not appropriate for school age.

The rule is, if they're unintelligible use a phonological process test. If the child is intelligible, then use an articulation test. Use one or the other, not both.

Imitation of articulation/phonological processes exam is OK, if the child is under 5 years of age. They don't change/correct their production the way children who are greater than 5 years. So if you use imitation with older children to assess their speech sound production, use delayed imitation. If the child isn't talking a whole lot, then you're really doing a description analysis of their phonemes/syllable structures. You look at the phonemes & vowels produced, and types of syllable structures used i.e., CV, CVC, etc. Usually don't use either an artic or phonology test for these kids. They don't have enough language.

Oral Peripheral: If child does not cooperate, ask parent about the child?s feeding habits. Do they chew, swallow, drink fluids without choking. Preferences for soft foods, movement of tongue for ice cream, chewing, cleaning teeth after eating. Do they make a mess at the table, chair, when they eat? In other words, do they miss their mouth when eating food.

Published Questionnaires: Use them to help organize your interviews. You can do ethnographic interviews if you have time, but the questionnaires are already translated, parents can read them, and these will help you expedite the diagnostics, especially if you have 10+ referrals. Gestures: What are you looking for in gestures? the typical ones that toddlers use, or elaborate gestures that are substitutes for language/words? Look to see if they're combining gestures, to communicate 2 to 3 word ideas. Case History: Always ask if there is anyone in the family with a history of a language/learning disability.

Resources:

Hortencia G. Kayser, Ph.D.
Professor

hartkayser@hotmail.com