Exploring Your Own Culture Assignment

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. 

As a result of this project you will

1. Increase your understanding of your own culture and how it has shaped your lens of perception
2. Discover your level of cultural competence
3. Explore your feelings and attitudes towards the problem of stuttering

The completion of the following activities/tasks is required

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.