3 - Distinguishing a True Disability from “Something Else”: Part II. Toward a Model of Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Speech-Language Disability Evaluations

Summary

In this chapter, the authors suggest how to conduct culturally and linguistically appropriate speech-language and educational evaluations. They remind professionals to examine the underlying theoretical and psychometric concerns and linguistic biases in the instruments used in their evaluations. Evaluators must consider socio-economic status (SES) and compare the child being evaluated to children of similar SES. Evaluators should gather data from multiple sources, including the parents/caregivers, teachers, and the student, including the student’s exposure to languages and dialects, considering the parents’ educational level, determining the family history of speech-language/academic problems, determining the influence of changes in family structure, comparing the student to peers or siblings, considering if the student is performing at their best during the evaluation, observing whether the student shows subtle motor difficulties, and gathering examples of the student’s most advanced communications. The authors share questions that should be asked from teachers and language information that should be elicited from students. They discuss dynamic assessment including nonword repetition tasks and appropriate language assessment materials. Finally, they discuss how to analyze the data to arrive at an accurate differential diagnosis.