Comments for ¡Adelante! Bilingual Therapies Blog

Comment on ¡Ponle SALT a Tu Evaluación! by Stacey Burke

Stacey Burke — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:55:37 +0000

This is wonderful! I had never heard of SALT before, but I am so glad to know there is a way for me to transcribe Spanish language samples and make sense of them. Thank you for sharing this knowledge.

Comment on Bilingualism and Autism Spectrum Disorders by Henriette W. Langdon

Henriette W. Langdon — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:57:31 +0000

I would like to thank all the participants in this discussion (professionals including our presenter Sofia Carias and parents ) for providing us with a framework and insights/questions on how to best work with bilingual children who have been diagnosed as being on the ASD spectrum –which in itself is a broad classification. Each child is different no matter which diagnosis he/she is given. We need to evaluate each case and collaborate with all persons that work with the child.
In any event, we know from research and experience that all individuals can handle one and more languages–most the world is bilingual or even tri/ multilingual. children. Observations and emergent literature indicates that children with various language disorders can be indeed be bilingual and the exposure to more than one language DOES NOT create further problems. So families and professionals working with a child on the ASD spectrum or any other disability need to engineer the best possible ENVIRONMENT where both languages can be enhanced. What is important, is to provide the children with POSITIVE experiences where each language is nourished and respected, just as a growing plant- in a garden- Henriette W. Langdon, Ed.D. Professor, San José State University, CA,

Comment on Bilingualism and Autism Spectrum Disorders by Nathan Cornish

Nathan Cornish — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:33:30 +0000

Hi Nancy- thanks for posting your question! A recurring theme that I’ve seen in the literature (and on this blog) is that when parents speak only in a language that is less-familiar to them it limits the exposure that the child has to a strong language model, and may keep the child from participating in all the dynamics of family communication. (See Betty Yu’s comment above posted on 5/26/2008). Additionally, Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, who published a highly-quoted study on bilingual children with mod-severe language disorders, presented a wonderful session at the ASHA convention in New Orleans last month. She talks about the ability of children with disabilities to manage more than one language, and gave some great insight into many of the dynamics involved in the process (e.g., exposure, family values, motivation for being bilingual, etc.) I highly recommend it; it may lend you some insight into working with these parents. The slides can be found online at: http://convention.asha.org/2009/handouts/1645_1693Kay-Raining_Bird_Elizabeth_071775_Nov23_2009_Time_031839PM.ppt Best of luck as you work with the parents and teachers to provide the richest communication environment possible for this student!

Comment on Bilingualism and Autism Spectrum Disorders by Nancy Perry

Nancy Perry — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:34:42 +0000

I have a Vietnamese family that spoke Vietnamese to their autistic child until he was 3 years old. When he entered school at 3 years of age, the teacher told the parents to only speak English to the child. The boy is now 6 years, 8 months old and his parents are still speaking English only; however it is very broken and limited. The boy’s expressive and receptive language in English is very low. Should he continue speaking in English or should he be introduced again to his primary language? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comment on ¡Ponle SALT a Tu Evaluación! by Raúl Rojas

Raúl Rojas — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:52:16 +0000

Hi Linda:

Glad to hear that you are “on the bus” (so to speak) as far as integrating narrative language sampling and SALT into your assessment protocol.

You can access the Frog story scripts (in Spanish and English) here:

http://www.saltsoftware.com/training/elicitation/frogStories/

Regarding your question about software programs that allow you to listen to specific sections of the sample repeatedly, I use: WavPedal

Although WavPedal is not free, it is simple to use, highly customizable (e.g., you can adjust the number of seconds you want the sample to auto-rewind once you stop the audio), and will let you use hotkeys on your keyboard or a transcription foot pedal.

There are probably free applications out there though. For example, Express Scribe, but I can’t tell you how functional it will be.

Other than that, I know that most Sony Digital Recorders come with their own transcription software, and it’s pretty decent.

If you do find a great and free option though, please let me know. =)

Comment on Supervising Bilingual Speech-Language Aides and Paraprofessionals by Nathan Cornish

Nathan Cornish — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:49:25 +0000

I just found this on the Texas Department of State Health Services. They have a couple of powerpoint trainings on supervising speech assistants. A lot of the info is rather Texas-specific, but there are also some good pointers for the rest of us. See: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/speech/sp_ppsuper.shtm

Comment on ¡Ponle SALT a Tu Evaluación! by Linda Dickson

Linda Dickson — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:36:23 +0000

I love using SALT. I can’t stand doing an assessment without the Frog story and I’m getting a lot quicker at typing the samples in.

I looked for the scripts for other the other Frog stories, but couldn’t find them. Where should I look?

Do you have any suggestions for specific programs that allow you to listen and have sections of the sample repeat easily? Currently I am using an old version of “cool edit” because it allows me to “loop”, but I’m wondering if there is something current out there (preferably free) that will allow me to do the same thing.

Thanks!

Comment on Bilingualism and Autism Spectrum Disorders by sheila

sheila — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:52:58 +0000

I am working with autistic students and beside that I need help with a essay that I am doing rigth now Bilingual and Autistic children. I want to know if it is good for them to learn two language . They can do it. They were confused.

Comment on ¡Ponle SALT a Tu Evaluación! by Raúl Rojas

Raúl Rojas — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:48:17 +0000

Hi Melanie, thank you for your question.

Additional information regarding the Bilingual Spanish and English Story Retell databases is available within Bilingual SALT SE and online at:

http://www.saltsoftware.com/salt/bilingualSE/#

Click on the, “Bilingual Spanish/English Story Retell reference databases”, link.

To summarize, however, all of the children in the bilingual databases were typically developing, enrolled in ELL classrooms and information regarding age, grade, gender, and maternal education is available.

As far as “language history” is concerned, although in-depth information can probably be obtained for each individual child in the database, the following is important to remember:

This is a normative database composed of more than 2,000 bilingual (Spanish-English) children, and every language sample you profile (i.e., compare) to either of the bilingual databases, will yield a customized comparison set.

For example, let’s say that you prefer matching children by age, and you have two language transcripts from two children (Luis and Norma) on your caseload. The language transcript for Luis – who is 6;2 – will generate a specific comparison set from the databases, which will be slightly different than the comparison set for Norma who is 6;4. In other words, although you are using the same bilingual databases, the actual children (from the databases) within each comparison set will be slightly different depending on the matching criteria (i.e., age, grade, gender, maternal education) you want SALT to use.

With this in mind, knowing the individual language history of each child from (let’s say) a comparison set based on 723 bilingual children for Luis and a comparison set based on 807 bilingual children for Norma, is probably not the information you will be seeking as far as oral language skills are concerned. Rather, critical information will be how the performance of Luis and Norma compares to the bilingual databases.

Comment on ¡Ponle SALT a Tu Evaluación! by Melanie

Melanie — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:12:12 +0000

Hello, I was wondering if more specific information about the children in the database is available. They’re all bilingual children enrolled in ELL services, but do we know anything else about their language history?

I am really glad that you’ve worked so hard to develop the bilingual version of SALT. Thanks!