The case study below shows what that supportive team—and its successful results—might look like.
Look Toward Your Team for Support: One Patient's Story
"My patient, an 85-year-old Mandarin speaker, was nonresponsive in the hospital after a stroke. The family shared that their grandmother lived with them in the home but didn't speak much before the stroke, either. The doctor was trying to get information from the patient, who kept nodding affirmatively in response to all of his questions and comments. But [the doctor] wasn't certain if she was really agreeing with him or nodding because he was talking.
The neurologist referred her for a complete audiologic evaluation before the speech-language pathologist could do the language assessment. Conducting the pure-tone testing wasn't complicated, but I wasn't sure how I was going to complete speech audiometry since I only had spondees and Pb-word lists in English.
I called the interpreter [phone] line that we had—to discuss some ideas for how we could accomplish this. We had someone on nursing staff who could also assist with the evaluation. I talked to the family to find out a little more about any concerns about her hearing before the stroke.
It turns out, they had noticed the challenges in hearing for a bit but felt that was a natural part of aging. They didn't seek help but would be open to finding out what options may be available."
Connecting with your client's provider may provide you with important information for your evaluation process. Compromised performance may be due to—or further impacted by—language background rather than solely due to hearing and/or processing difficulties.
Tips on Alternative Assessments
- Before you begin the evaluation, ensure that you have all information regarding the language(s) that the client/patient uses.
- Collaborate with professionals as well as the client/patient and their family/care partner to determine needs.
- Familiarize yourself with nonstandard and alternative assessments.
- Familiarize yourself with the communication profile of your client. Research grammatical rules that may influence your assessment procedure. Learn the sound systems of the language or dialect.
- Take the necessary steps to ensure that you can evaluate the client/patient in all languages required. Use linguistically appropriate stimuli.