Application of Cultural Parameters to the Assessment of Latino Children
< Back to Previous PageApplication of Cultural Parameters to the Assessment of Latino Children
All material Copyright © 2007 Bilinguistics
Reprinted with the express permission of Bilinguistics as originally published on their website.
By: Bilinguistics, Inc.
The mission at Bilinguistics is "to enhance the communication of Spanish-English bilingual children, enabling those children to achieve their highest communicative and academic potential. Additionally to support monolingual and bilingual professionals working with bilingual children and English language learners through workshops, presentations, and continuing education.
This is a Continuing Education Course offered by Bilinguistics, an ASHA Approved CE Provider. To take the test and receive Continuing Education Units for this course, please visit the Bilinguistics website test page for this course HERE
Objectives:
Participants will be able to demonstrate knowledge in and identify:
Introduction
Clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds comprise almost 35% of speech-language pathologists ‘ caseloads across employment settings (ASHA survey, 2000). Among this group of individuals, Latinos are the fastest growing racial/ethnic minority group in the United States (Salas-Provance, Erickson, and Reed, 2002). Between 1990 and 2000 the Latino population increased by 57.9 percent, compared with an increase of 13.2 percent for the total population of the United States. In 2000, 12.5 percent of US residents were Latino and more than three-quarters lived in the West or South, with half of all Latinos in California and Texas. In the Fall of 2000, approximately 16 percent of students enrolled in elementary and secondary schools were Latino. Of these children, 17.3 percent were identified as having speech or language impairment during the 2000-2001 school-year (Salas-Provance, Erickson, and Reed, 2002).
As this population grows, the number of Latinos on SLPs’ caseloads is growing, as well as the need for information on how to best serve this population. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) maintains that clinicians must recognize how a client ‘s cultural and linguistic characteristics will influence the clinical decision making process and determine how communicative competence and impairment are evaluated (Tomoeda & Bayles, 2002). ASHA further states that as professionals, clinicians are ethically obligated to provide culturally sensitive services to clients. ASHA’s position on the importance of culture is based on the assumption that clients’ cultural beliefs will influence how they describe their health problems, the manner in which they communicate their symptoms, who they seek for provision of health care, how long they remain in care, and how they assess the care provided. Culturally familiar environments facilitate success in treatment as clients are more secure and responsive in these settings. If clients feel the security of a culturally familiar environment, these clients may be more likely to respond freely and may also be further motivated to attend therapy. For these reasons, ASHA stresses the importance of clinicians developing their intercultural knowledge and skills in order to optimize patient outcomes (Tomoeda & Bayles, 2002; Mahendra et al., 2006).
In response to this need, the purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the cultural parameters of the Latino community and how these parameters apply specifically to the assessment of Latino children. Because speech and language disorders result from the interactions of multiple coexisting physiologic, psychological, and environmental factors, cultural influences may play a significant, if not dominant, role in determining, for example, the course of a stuttering syndrome in an individual’s life (Cooper & Cooper, 1998).
Read the Entire Paper
This is a Continuing Education Course offered by Bilinguistics, an ASHA Approved CE Provider. To take the test and receive Continuing Education Units for this course, please visit the Bilinguistics website test page for this course HERE
Featured Organization: Bilinguistics
We thank Bilinguistics for allowing us to reprint their copyrighted article. Please support our contributing authors.
The mission at Bilinguistics is "to enhance the communication of Spanish-English bilingual children, enabling those children to achieve their highest communicative and academic potential. Additionally to support monolingual and bilingual professionals working with bilingual children and English language learners through workshops, presentations, and continuing education."
For more information about this organization please visit Bilinguistics
All material Copyright © 2007 Bilinguistics
Reprinted with the express permission of Bilinguistics as originally published on their website.
By: Bilinguistics, Inc.
The mission at Bilinguistics is "to enhance the communication of Spanish-English bilingual children, enabling those children to achieve their highest communicative and academic potential. Additionally to support monolingual and bilingual professionals working with bilingual children and English language learners through workshops, presentations, and continuing education.
This is a Continuing Education Course offered by Bilinguistics, an ASHA Approved CE Provider. To take the test and receive Continuing Education Units for this course, please visit the Bilinguistics website test page for this course HERE
- Content Area: Related Areas
- Instructional Level: Introductory
- Continuing Education Units: .1 (1 hour)
Objectives:
Participants will be able to demonstrate knowledge in and identify:
- The cultural parameters of the Latino community.
- The importance of developing intercultural knowledge and skills in order to optimize patient outcomes.
- The nine parameters that can be used to characterize cultures.
- Ways to facilitate success in treatment as clients are more secure and responsive in culturally familiar environments.
Introduction
Clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds comprise almost 35% of speech-language pathologists ‘ caseloads across employment settings (ASHA survey, 2000). Among this group of individuals, Latinos are the fastest growing racial/ethnic minority group in the United States (Salas-Provance, Erickson, and Reed, 2002). Between 1990 and 2000 the Latino population increased by 57.9 percent, compared with an increase of 13.2 percent for the total population of the United States. In 2000, 12.5 percent of US residents were Latino and more than three-quarters lived in the West or South, with half of all Latinos in California and Texas. In the Fall of 2000, approximately 16 percent of students enrolled in elementary and secondary schools were Latino. Of these children, 17.3 percent were identified as having speech or language impairment during the 2000-2001 school-year (Salas-Provance, Erickson, and Reed, 2002).
As this population grows, the number of Latinos on SLPs’ caseloads is growing, as well as the need for information on how to best serve this population. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) maintains that clinicians must recognize how a client ‘s cultural and linguistic characteristics will influence the clinical decision making process and determine how communicative competence and impairment are evaluated (Tomoeda & Bayles, 2002). ASHA further states that as professionals, clinicians are ethically obligated to provide culturally sensitive services to clients. ASHA’s position on the importance of culture is based on the assumption that clients’ cultural beliefs will influence how they describe their health problems, the manner in which they communicate their symptoms, who they seek for provision of health care, how long they remain in care, and how they assess the care provided. Culturally familiar environments facilitate success in treatment as clients are more secure and responsive in these settings. If clients feel the security of a culturally familiar environment, these clients may be more likely to respond freely and may also be further motivated to attend therapy. For these reasons, ASHA stresses the importance of clinicians developing their intercultural knowledge and skills in order to optimize patient outcomes (Tomoeda & Bayles, 2002; Mahendra et al., 2006).
In response to this need, the purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the cultural parameters of the Latino community and how these parameters apply specifically to the assessment of Latino children. Because speech and language disorders result from the interactions of multiple coexisting physiologic, psychological, and environmental factors, cultural influences may play a significant, if not dominant, role in determining, for example, the course of a stuttering syndrome in an individual’s life (Cooper & Cooper, 1998).
Read the Entire Paper
This is a Continuing Education Course offered by Bilinguistics, an ASHA Approved CE Provider. To take the test and receive Continuing Education Units for this course, please visit the Bilinguistics website test page for this course HERE
Featured Organization: Bilinguistics
We thank Bilinguistics for allowing us to reprint their copyrighted article. Please support our contributing authors.
The mission at Bilinguistics is "to enhance the communication of Spanish-English bilingual children, enabling those children to achieve their highest communicative and academic potential. Additionally to support monolingual and bilingual professionals working with bilingual children and English language learners through workshops, presentations, and continuing education."
For more information about this organization please visit Bilinguistics
