As some of you may know, I am expecting my first baby (It's a BOY!) and will be taking some time off from work and blogging before and after his arrival. During that time, there will be several guest bloggers/SLPs that will be featured on my blog. I am so excited to share all of the amazing, informative posts they have come up with. I can not thank them all enough for taking the time to write these posts! Just another one of the many reasons I love being part of the SLP world. I hope you all enjoy reading everything over the next several weeks. Please feel free to leave comments and post questions!
Monolingual SLP in a Bilingual World
The next guest post is written by Rachel at Queen's Speech! Enjoy!
Monolingual SLP in a Bilingual World
Yep, that’s me! I would
love to be bilingual. I have tried to become bilingual. Sadly, I am not
bilingual. I took 5+ years of Spanish throughout high school and early in
college; however, by the time I actually needed to use it 6 or 7 years later, I
had forgotten most of it.
Next came graduate
school; I attended San Jose State University and had the pleasure of being the
student of Dr. Henriette Langdon, Ed. D, F-CCC-SLP, the guru (in my mind) of
Speech-Language Pathology in culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
There was a considerable amount I did not know about bilingual language
development and cultural issues. She has authored two fantastic books that I
still refer to all the time. They are both great reads!
Now if you have never
worked with an interpreter or need some guidance, here are…
Plan Ahead:
Goodness I cannot stress this enough! At the beginning of the year I sit down
and try to plan out all of my meetings and assessment times. Yes, ALL. Usually
when a district hires a bilingual interpreter they are busy people and their
time fills up fast. This also makes it easy to reschedule meetings if needed.
Also, the interpreter needs enough time to contact parents when need be.
Even if you send
something home in writing, have the
bilingual interpreter call home to
explain. Sometimes, even if the paper is in their native language the
parent may have questions or may speak/read a different dialect. It’s best to
just call ahead, tell the parent what to expect and what you need from them.
They can also ask questions ahead of time this way. The last thing you want is
to send an evaluation plan home and not get it back because they have questions
or don’t know what the paper is.
Collaborate
before and after every meeting/assessment. Always. We see the students and
parents more often than the bilingual interpreters do. We need to share our
insight (especially before assessments) with them about behavior (including
parents’ behavior), what to expect, what the meeting is about or what kind of
assessments you need. You don’t want the interpreter to be surprised by
something you already knew but didn’t tell them. Collaborating after the
meeting is over gives you a great way to talk about what the two of you would
like to do differently next time.
Be flexible. Every
bilingual interpreter does things differently. Get used to it. I had one
bilingual interpreter whom I became very used to. She then retired, was replaced by three
interpreters, and they all did things differently. It took some getting used
to. I had one interpreter who interpreted simultaneously. It was very hard for
my brain to process two languages at once! I found I kept losing track of where
I was and couldn’t think straight. Just like all SLPs conduct therapy
differently, the interpreter has to get used to us and the way we run meetings and
conduct assessments.
Watch your
language! Okay, not like that. SLPs love to use big fancy words and
acronyms. Try to use layman’s terms as much as possible, avoid figurative
language, and idioms; you will end up having to explain in detail what you meant. In addition, remember that jokes and some
emotions (sarcasm) do not translate well.
Never assume the bilingual interpreter or parent knows what you are
talking about.
Keep it short.
Remember that ,with interpreting, your
meetings will naturally be longer. Try not to read your entire evaluation
report or go through every single subtest score. Go through the main points. My
favorite way is to use a standard bell curve (find one here)
with my scores plotted on it. Numbers are a language everyone speaks. Then you can answer questions or go more in depth
if the parent needs more information.
Remember to look
at the parent when speaking. Every once in a while I catch myself looking
at my bilingual interpreter and not the parent when explaining something. It’s
okay if it’s for clarification for the interpreter, but remember to return your
gaze to the parent. Now, do not expect
all parents to return that courtesy, it depends on their culture and what they
are comfortable with.
Listen. You
have to be patient. I don’t have to tell you that SLPs can be a chatty bunch:
however, when working with interpreters you need to learn to sit and listen.
Yes, your IEPs will likely take a bit longer, but you need to say a sentence or
two and stop. It’s hard for bilingual interpreters to remember any more than
that. It will be difficult at first. After you have worked with someone for a
while; you will be able to tell how much to say before stopping.
Learn. I
have learned so much Spanish that I consider myself to be almost receptively
bilingual. I have learned about how my students acquire language sequentially
versus simultaneously. I now have the ability to distinguish language disorder
or typical bilingual language development. I know more about Spanish culture
now than I ever thought I would.
Have Fun! This takes time, but you will
be surprised how fast you will get used to having a bilingual interpreter
around. Now when I have an English-speaking parent I get nervous because I
don’t have that language barrier to provide me with extra think time. I have
found I enjoy working with interpreters, and I think you will too! Have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment