ACQ Vol 13 no 3 2011

Cultural diversity

Our Top 10 resources for working with children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)

backgrounds Multicultural Interest Group (Victorian Branch)

1. Hanen resources The Hanen Centre is based in Canada and it aims to develop parents’ and professionals’ knowledge and skills so they can support children to develop language and literacy skills. There are several parent training programs that speech pathologists are trained to deliver to parents and other early childhood professionals. There are also a range of resources (books, handouts, and DVDs) that supplement these parent training programs. The Hanen website provides lots of information and resources about developing

children’s language and literacy skills. The resources are very user-friendly and are appropriate to use with parents and families from a range of backgrounds. Refer to: http:// www.hanen.org 2. Play assessment using the Symbolic Play Test

also useful for generating articulation targets in other languages. Available from: http://www.spectronicsinoz. com/ 4. Internet resources Websites such as Wikipedia, www.ethnologue.com, and http://linguistlist.org/ are useful in providing information about different languages and cultures. The language resource area of the Linguist List website is: http:// linguistlist.org/langres/index.cfm The website also has an “ask a question” function: http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/. The Listening Room (http://www.hearingjourney.com/ Listening_Room) provides a steady stream of free activities and resources to support the development of speech, language, and listening skills in children, adolescents, and adults with hearing loss. Activities are useful for working with all children with language delays including children from CALD backgrounds. Pictures and activities support vocabulary development, oral narrative skills, and more. The Listening Tree (www.listeningtree.ca) website has lots of activities that can be used for both preschool and school aged children. There is a registration cost of $50 in order to be able to access all the activities. 5. Local CALD playgroups and library storytimes Many libraries hold story time sessions for preschool children in different languages (check with your local library for details). Many playgroups are also run for families from

The Symbolic Play Test by Marianne Lowe and Anthony J. Costello is a standardised assessment tool which allows observation and recording of a child’s play skills (1–3 years) in a variety of scenarios. The test provides an “objective indication of a child’s early concept formation and symbolisation – abilities

that precede and develop alongside receptive and expressive language”. Available for purchase from GL Assessment: http://shop.gl-assessment.co.uk/home.php 3. Boardmaker Boardmaker is a computer software program that allows you to generate pictures for hundreds of vocabulary items. There is a function on the program that allows the label for the picture to be translated into several different languages. This can be useful when using pictures as either visual supports for children or as a communication device. It is

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ACQ Volume 13, Number 3 2011

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au