You are working as a private speech-language pathologist in Gwinnett County, GA. The company that you work contracts with preschool and pre-K classrooms to offer services

Case Study Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice skills needed for culturally responsive evaluation. This will help you as a pre-professional and pre-clinician to develop client and family-focused culturally responsive evaluation, as it is good planning for your career.

Scenario

You are working as a private speech-language pathologist in Gwinnett County, GA. The company that you work contracts with preschool and pre-K classrooms to offer services with children who have Medicaid.  You are referred to Juan Gonzalez by Ms. Kat, an eight-year PreK teacher whom you have worked with before. Ms. Kat is a White, 30-year-old monolingual teacher.

Juan Gonzalez is a 4 and a half-year-old, Spanish-speaking boy. Juan was born in Merida, Mexico, but his family moved here when he was 3 years old.  Juan is the seventh of eight children. He and his brothers, sisters, mother, and grandmother live in a small three-bedroom duplex. Juan’s father was the main provider for the family. However, he died about one year ago following a heart attack. Juan’s mother takes on odd jobs when she can, and his grandmother helps with the children and household duties as well.

Ms. Kat says that she has some concerns about Juan’s communication. Initially, Juan wasn’t very engaged in class activities.  He demonstrated some behavior problems, including hitting and biting other students when arguing over toys. Ms. Kat admits that she wasn’t sure of how much English he knew or understood. Now, they note that he seems to be understanding some basic directions in English, and at different points, during the school day, he tries to follow along in class. He has tried to answer some yes/no and one-word questions in small groups.

The teacher had the opportunity to talk with Juan’s mother, Ms. Gonzalez, recently. Juan’s older sister, who is 11, helped translate because Juan’s mother does not communicate in English. Ms. Gonzalez shared the teacher’s concerns about Juan’s talking. She reported that he did not talk until he was two and a half years old. Ms. Gonzalez noted that Juan sometimes has difficulty understanding questions as he can’t answer specific questions about his day at school. Sometimes, she knows he doesn’t understand something that she has told him to do, but he doesn’t ask for clarification. She says that he doesn’t use a lot of words when talking. Ms. Kat asked some other basic questions she saw on a questionnaire. Medically, Ms. Gonzalez reported no additional problems with prenatal or birth history. Juan did pass his recent hearing and vision screenings at his pediatrician’s office.

The questions for the case are below. In your paper copy and paste your responses below the question. No cover page is needed just your name in the header.

However, here is some contextual information to assist you. Culture is the shared beliefs, traditions, and values of a group of people that are used to define their social identity. Key cultural variables, in this case, might include race/ethnicity, immigration status, languages spoken, and experiences and beliefs about healthcare and disabilities. Social factors have to do with access. This could include things like socio-economic status, poverty, educational background of family members, household composition and access, and psychological distress.

1.    Based on the information that was provided, what types of disorder(s) are you considering might be a possibility and why?

2.    What are 10-15 prospective key questions you would ask Ms. Gonzalez? What is the rationale for asking these questions? There should be a mix of questions to where some questions are directly related to understanding the overall communication problem, and a few should be directly related to the suspected communication disorder.  Place this information in a chart as below.

3.    What are some of the cultural and social factors that might affect your approach to this assessment? Here is where you must cite research-based information related to culture and social factors-and make sure to speak to both.

4.    What tests would you use to assess his communication function?  How would you need to modify these tests to make them appropriate if necessary? Consider all necessary modifications to attempt to make testing more culturally responsive.

5.    In addition to the formal language testing and the parent interview, how else might you get more information for your assessment with authentic assessment also known as informal assessment tasks? Provide at least 3 tasks not named in the example below should you choose to use the example. Provide a rationale for these tasks as in chart below.

Recommended minimums to successfully complete this assignment

This is not an APA paper, but you must cite all information within the text according to APA style. You must also have an APA style cover page.

7 References minimum to successfully provide the evidence needed to complete this assignment. At least 4 of these seven must be peer-reviewed sources. At least four references should be provided to address question 3.

3-4 page length (Reference page not included).