The Professor is In

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Re: Bilingual PWS

From: Brian Humphrey
Date: 20 Oct 2007
Time: 22:03:11 -0500
Remote Name: 75.74.131.143

Comments

Chanel Monroe wrote: How difficult is it to assess and treat a person who stutters when English is their second language? Should treatment be done by someone who is fluent in their first language, and if it is not necessary to do so, what tools are out there that could assist with that? In an ideal world, we would be able to assess and treat thoroughly in both languages. In the real world, we do what we can. Even bilingual clinicians may be asked to evaluate a bilingual client who speaks a language unfamiliar to the clinician. . . . . The difficulty of doing a bilingual assessment and the quality of the assessment depend on the languages spoken, the language proficiencies of the SLP, the SLP’s training and experience in assessing people of other languages and cultures, and the training given to interpreters who may be involved in the assessments. . . . . According to resources and need, I have used the following assessment strategies at various times. L1 is short-hand for the client’s first language: . . . . 1. Assessment in English and L1 (Spanish or French), by using a bilingual graduate student clinician trained by me to conduct a bilingual assessment. . . . . . 2. Assessment in English and L1(Hmong) by collaborating with a school-based interpreter trained to work with SLP’s and other special educators. . . . 3. Assessment in English and L1 (Thai), by locating an interpreter in the community, orienting her to fluency disorders, and then collaborating with her to complete an assessment. The interpreter provided a descriptive analysis of dysfluencies in Thai, but not a quantitative analysis. . . . additional information was gained by asking the interpreter to compare the client's stuttering in English with the client's stuttering in Thai. . . . . 4. Assessment in English and obtaining a fluency sample in L1 (Polish); asking the client and his wife to complete rating scales for stuttering in each language, and scoring the fluency samples on my own. . . . . Note: one must be careful to discern which dysfluencies are stuttering dysfluencies, and which dysfluencies are the result of less proficiency in a non-native language. . . . . We need more evidence about the abilities of monolingual judges to identify dysfluencies in unfamiliar languages. A study I conducted to address this question yielded encouraging preliminary results when monolinguals identified dysfluencies in Spanish in South Florida, but much more research needs to be done. . . . . Regarding treatment, four adults I studied became more fluent in English, the language of treatment; and they made good gains in Spanish or French, their untreated languages. Again, much more work needs to be done. If treatment is to be conducted in only one language, I would consider home assignments to practice fluency skills in both languages, and having the client use a rating scale to rate his/her performance in both languages outside the clinic. BH


Last changed: 10/22/07