1.
Exploring Your Own Culture.
As you will discover, working
with people who stutter and their families involves much more than simply
working on the aspects of speaking.
Whether you work with a young child or an adult, you will need to consider
the beliefs and attitudes towards stuttering, and towards communication in
general, of the individual client and/or his/her family. Each individual who stutters is unique
in his/her background.
Communication expectations of the individual and/or of his family will
vary. A person’s culture
helps develop his/her beliefs and values and as a result influences
behavior. As fluency clinicians we
must consider cultural variables when assisting clients with stuttering
problems.
To aid in learning to
understand someone else’s culture, it is beneficial to first explore
one’s own culture and its influences. This unit is designed to help you do exactly that.
a) Increase
your understanding of your own culture and how it has shaped your lens of
perception
b) Discover
your level of cultural competence
c) Explore
your feelings and attitudes towards the problem of stuttering
1. Read the
required articles
2. Participate
in an online discussion
3. Complete
a portion of ASHA’s online Cultural Competence Awareness Assessment
4. Complete
the Cultural Factors Assessment (provided to you by the instructor)
5. Write a
3-5 page reflection on this unit
Articles
You are required to read the following articles:
American
Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2005). Cultural competence. ASHA Supplement 25, in press.
Rodriguez, B. L. and Olswang,
L.B. (2002). Cultural diversity is more than group differences: An example
from the Mexican American community. Contemporary Issues in Communication
Science and Disorders, Vol. 29, 154-164.
Online Discussion
An online class discussion
regarding the role of culture in speech-language pathology practice will take
place during the week of September 11-15.
You are expected to post a minimum of two comments to the discussion. Your initial comment must be posted by
the end of the day Wednesday, September 13. Your final comment should be posted by the end of the day
Friday September 15.
The range of topics for
discussion is wide open. Several
possible topics may include: insights you discovered regarding you own culture
and potential biases that you may have; your cultural perspective regarding
stuttering; your performance on the ASHA assessment; etc.
ASHA Cultural Competence
Awareness Assessment
You will need to go to the
ASHA website, www.asha.org to complete
this portion of the assignment.
Once you are on the website, type in Cultural Competence Awareness
Assessment in the Search tool located
in the upper right-hand corner.
Then click on the first result, Self-Assessment
for Cultural Competence . On that page,
simply click on the interactive web-based tool. Enter the recommended name and password (from the previous
page). Once you’re in,
select Working with culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and then take that part of the survey. Once you’re finished with the
survey (only that portion of the survey), which will take you 15 minutes or
less, remember to write down your score (the number correct and percentage
correct). Please report how you
did in your reflection paper and how you felt about your performance.
Cultural Factors
Assessment
You will be provided this
assessment form in class. It was
developed by Robinson & Crowe (2002) and was designed to be used with
adults who stutter or their family members. The assessment draws information regarding a person’s
culture and its influence and on beliefs & attitudes towards
stuttering. Please complete the
assessment as best you can. You
are expected to turn this in with your reaction paper. I suspect that the information it draws
from you will be useful in our D2L discussion and in your reaction paper.
Reflection
You are required to write a 3
to 5 page reaction paper. Please
double-space and follow APA Style writing guidelines. This paper may include any personal discoveries regarding
your culture, your awareness of other cultures, etc., that you may have made as
a result of your participation in all of the activities. You may also wish to comment on any
particular points made in the readings and/or online discussion that you feel
are important to remember when working with individuals who stutter and their
families. Please reference all
materials.
Grading
This project is worth 50
points of your grade. Please refer
to the grading rubric included in the syllabus for additional information
regarding determination of grades.
Your reflection, along with
the completed cultural factors assessment, is due by the end of the day on
Friday September 22. Late
assignments will not be accepted.