Using Family-Centered Practices to Increase Language Access for Multilingual Deaf or Hard of Hearing Children

Children who are deaf or hard of hearing may experience language deprivation in the early years that impacts long-term communication and educational outcomes. Fortunately, family engagement in the early childhood years has been shown to increase outcomes for young learners, and the standards for early childhood family engagement align with best practices for teaching children who are deaf or hard of hearing from multilingual families. Best practices for early childhood education, deaf or hard of hearing education, and multilingual education all place the family at the forefront with a strong belief that family is the first and best teacher for their child. The purpose of the chapter is to present the alignment of family centered practices across early childhood, deaf or hard of hearing, and multilingual education literature and present family centered collaboration strategies to increase early childhood language access for young multilingual children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Mental Health Disparities

Millions of Americans are affected by a mental illness or disorder each year. Given the prevalence, it is unfortunate that significant disparities exist within mental health care. Some of the most common reasons mental health disparities exist include stigma, previous negative experiences, limited mental health literacy, lack of culturally aware providers and services, language access, and lack of financial resources. Additionally, members of racial and ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation minority groups, who already encounter higher levels of bias, experience poorer mental health outcomes due to disparities than their counterparts. Grounded in the values and ethics of the profession, it is no surprise that social workers play a vital role in reducing mental health disparities.

An Instructional Strategy to Facilitate Pre-Professional Training in Removing Language Access Barriers

Cross-CCCR and responsiveness (CCCRR) is an important aspect of clinical service delivery in speech-language pathology (SLP). Beyond the issue of CCCR, there is also a need to address how professional practices can facilitate justice in traditionally marginalized populations. Limited language access can facilitate inequities and disparities within institutions and systems when it is not considered in clinical service delivery. However, within the field of SLP there is a limited amount of information available on the effectiveness of pedagogical strategies needed to facilitate student CCCR and train SLPs in how to minimize barriers posed by language access. Simulation, using standardized patients, is a strategy from the medical field that has been used for such purposes. There are few published reports on the use of simulation for fostering various aspects of CCCR development among SLP students. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of a research project examining the effectiveness of a simulated interpreter encounter for multicultural training.

Measuring “Language Access Profiles” in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children With the DHH Language Exposure Assessment Tool

Purpose The purposes of this study were (a) to introduce “language access profiles” as a viable alternative construct to “communication mode” for describing experience with language input during early childhood for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children; (b) to describe the development of a new tool for measuring DHH children's language access profiles during infancy and toddlerhood; and (c) to evaluate the novelty, reliability, and validity of this tool. Method We adapted an existing retrospective parent report measure of early language experience (the Language Exposure Assessment Tool) to make it suitable for use with DHH populations. We administered the adapted instrument (DHH Language Exposure Assessment Tool [D-LEAT]) to the caregivers of 105 DHH children aged 12 years and younger. To measure convergent validity, we also administered another novel instrument: the Language Access Profile Tool. To measure test–retest reliability, half of the participants were interviewed again after 1 month. We identified groups of children with similar language access profiles by using hierarchical cluster analysis. Results The D-LEAT revealed DHH children's diverse experiences with access to language during infancy and toddlerhood. Cluster analysis groupings were markedly different from those derived from more traditional grouping rules (e.g., communication modes). Test–retest reliability was good, especially for the same-interviewer condition. Content, convergent, and face validity were strong. Conclusions To optimize DHH children's developmental potential, stakeholders who work at the individual and population levels would benefit from replacing communication mode with language access profiles. The D-LEAT is the first tool that aims to measure this novel construct. Despite limitations that future work aims to address, the present results demonstrate that the D-LEAT represents progress over the status quo.