Multicultural Populations Flashcards
How might culture impact assessment for children?
Knowledge of a family’s worldview and cultural frame of reference is essential for providing speech-language pathology services that are meaningful and relevant for culturally and linguistically diverse families. Families may have multiple cultural influences upon their values, language preferences, kin structure, child rearing practices, religion, roles, responsibilities of family members (as caregivers, disciplinarians, socializers, and/or decision makers), perceptions of health, and behaviors across different domains of their life.
How might you adapt an assessment to account for cultural variation?
Adaptation of assessments from one language to another is not recommended, particularly for speech assessments, because phoneme inventories differ across languages.
Additional Multicultural insights (pg 230 of SSD textbook)
Make sure to get their demographic information correct such as their names and date of birth. Phonetically transcribe names so you know how to pronounce them when meeting with them again.
If a family is from a non-western culture be aware that the order in which they write their name may be different. E.g., in Vietnam many families write their surname first, then middle name, and finally first name. Don’t assume though–always clarify.
Documenting DOB also important and can vary across cultures depending on what calendar they use. Example: Lunar calendar. Some families calculate the age of a child based on the time of conception to the beginning of the lunar calendar, instead of the time of birth. Using a western calendar, the child would be 1-2 years older.
