To a change of cultural and Dei competence, which implies understanding and trying to respond to the differences in the language, culture and domestic environment of children, it could give an effect at a time when more of motorcycles, said the expert experience.
They told me about some promising strategies to strengthen the speech services for multilingual babies, young children and children of current school with speech delays, or every one that implies a great dependence on the DEI and cultural competence.
Hug the creative staff
The Navajo nation faces a serious shortage of trains personnel to evaluate and work with young children with delays in development, including speech. Then, in 2022, Allison-Burbank and his research team began to provide training in speech evaluation and therapy to native family trainers who are already working with families through a tribal home visits program. Family trainers provide speech support until you can find a more permanent solution, said Allison-Burbank.
Home visits programs are “an unspecified resource for people like me trying to have a broader scope to identify thesis children and obtain intermediate services,” he said. (The existence of the home visits and speech therapy program is under a serious threat due to federal cuts, even Medicaid).
Use language tests that have a leg designed for multilingual populations
Decades ago, few of the exams used to diagnose speech delays had been “regulated”, or intended to establish expectations and reference points about populations that do not speak English.
For example, early childhood intervention programs were required several years ago to use a single tool that was based on English standards to diagnose Spanish -speaking children, said Ellen Kester, founder and president of speech services and bilingual languages in Austin, which provides direct services to families and training to school districts. “We saw an increase in the diagnosis of very young children (Spanish -speaking),” he said. That is not because all children had speech delays, but due to the fundamental differences between the two languages that were not reflected in the design and score of the test. (In Spanish, for example, the ‘Z’ sound is pronounced as an English ‘)
Now there are more options than ever of the selectors and tools regulated in several multilingual populations; The states, agencies and school districts must be selective and informed, when searching and pressing for continuous refinement.
Expand formal and self -noted training for speech therapists in the best ways to work with several populations
In the long term, the best way to help more bilingual children, hire more bilingual speech therapists through Dei Robustos efforts. But in the short term, speech therapists cannot only trust interpreters, if one is equally available, to connect with multilingual children.
That means using resources that break down the main differentials in the structure, pronunciation and use between English and the language spoken by the family, Kester said. “As therapists, we need to know the patterns of the language and what is expected and what is not expected,” Kester said.
It is also crucial that therapists understand how cultural norms can vary, especially, since they train parents and caregivers in the best way to keep their children, said Katharine Zuckerman, teacher and head of associated division of general pediatrics.
“This idea that parents sit on the floor and play with the child and teach them how to talk is a very American cultural idea,” he said. “In many communities, it doesn’t work that way.”
In other words, to help the child, therapists have to embrace an idea that is suddenly under siege: cultural competence,
Quick Take: Relevant Research
In recent years, several studies have been at home on how early systems of early intervention, which serve children with delays in the development of birth ages through 3, multilingual children with speech challenges. One study Based on Oregon, and Zuckerman co -authorship, he discovered that speech diagnoses for Spanish -speaking children were less specific than for English speakers. Instead of identifying a particular challenge, Spanish speakers tended to obtain the general designation of “language delay”. That made it harder to connect families with the most personalized and beneficial therapies.
A second study They discovered that routinely speech pathologists lose critical steps in evaluating multilingual children for early intervention. That can cause overdiagnosis, subdiagnosis and inappropriate help. “These findings point to the critical need for greater preparation at preprofesional levels and a strong defense … to guarantee EI evaluations based on evidence and culturally sensitive intervention centered on the family for children of all origins,” concluded the authors.
Carr is a member member, focused on informing about early childhood issues.
Contact the editor of this story, Christina Samuels, at 212-678-3635, through the Cas.37 or samuels@hecheningerreport.org.
