Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community:
Individualizing: A Plan for Success
Appendix B
| Contents
| Preface
| Introduction
| Module 1
| Module 2
| Module 3
| Module 4 | |
Ensuring Culturally Competent Practices*
Cultural Competency
Cultural competence refers to a program's ability to demonstrate respect for diverse cultural beliefs, communication styles, attitudes, and behaviors in all of its practices and interactions with children and families. Such a program has knowledge of the cultures of the families enrolled in the program, values and builds on cultural differences, adapts practices to meet diverse needs, and actively seeks new cultural information and skills to better respond to all families. Cultural competence is an important part of Head Start's individualized approach and is particularly important in conducting screening and evaluation.
Screening and Evaluation
Both screening and evaluation should rely on multiple sources of information to gain information about a child. One reason this is a recommended practice is that it is virtually impossible to develop screening and evaluation instruments that are completely nonbiased and appropriate for all children-regardless of home language and culture. It is not possible to use a single instrument to accurately measure the development of all children. Instead, staff and specialists need to use valid, reliable, nonbiased screening and evaluation practices.
Head Start staff and specialists must also be aware that biased screening and evaluation practices can lead to children being inappropriately diagnosed, labeled, and referred for special services. Inaccurate assessment may occur because there are biases in the screening and evaluation instruments and procedures used or because the person administering the instrument is unfamiliar with the child's culture and home language. Children may be overidentified as having special needs because their culture and home language differ from that of most children in the group. Lack of understanding of cultural and linguistic differences can also result in overlooking children who truly need services.
Cultural Mediators/Interpreters
To be culturally competent, screening and evaluation must include families. Parents and other family members can share information about their culture and home language that may explain the child's apparent delay in development or lack of a particular skill.
Some programs ensure cultural competence in screening and evaluation by using language and cultural mediators or interpreters who assist the child and family and the person administering the test. These individuals, who are hired by the program, speak the child's language and often come from the same community. They tend to build trusting relationships with families more quickly than do individuals who do not share the family's language and culture. This leads to the family providing more detailed and useful information about their child, language, and culture.
Cultural mediators and interpreters need to be familiar with the screening and evaluation instruments and procedures, what information is collected through specific items, when they can change words, and when they must use specific terms. During the administration process, the mediator can present the actual test items to the child. In other cases, the mediator's role would be to convey information to the family members and present their responses to the person administering the test.
Role of Staff and Families
Head Start staff/FCC providers and families each play unique roles in ensuring the use of culturally competent practices in screening and evaluation and other steps in The Individualizing Cycle. Some examples follow.
Head Start staff/FCC providers can:
Value cultural and language differences as potential strengths.Get to know the cultures and languages of families enrolled in the program. Find out what views and styles of interaction are associated with different cultures. Learn how families typically support their members, how they make decisions, what behaviors they encourage in children, typical goals they have for adults and children, and the role of religion or spirituality in daily lives.
Review your own cultural background and experiences. Clarify your own cultural experiences, values, and biases. Think about how they might affect your interactions with people from other cultural groups.
Expect differences among families from the same culture. Recognize families in a given culture may have different values, beliefs, practices, or goals for their children. Learn what languages the child understands and the situations in which the child uses them.
Accommodate each family's culture and home language. For example, if you cannot communicate in a family's home language, make sure someone with appropriate language skills is available to assist you. The interpreter should be someone who knows both the language and culture and will put the family at ease.
Respect all parents and actively seek their participation.
Build trusting relationships with parents. Invite and respond to their questions and acknowledge the information they provide about their child and family. Let families know how their active involvement helps you identify and respond to the child's unique characteristics.
Provide a range of opportunities for parent participation. For example, one family might want to know how a formal screening instrument is used, but prefer to have education staff administer it. Another family might want to play an active role in the actual administration of the instrument.
Identify bilingual and bicultural individuals who can establish ongoing communication with families. Families may feel more secure and be more involved in their child's program when they can talk with people they know and feel comfortable with.
Ensure that there are culturally competent screening and evaluation practices.
Use common sense. Adjust the program's procedures to meet the needs of all families. For example, if necessary, modify test items to ensure cultural competency.
Conduct ongoing observations, administer instruments, and complete checklists in the most comfortable environment for the child. If a child is nervous or scared in an unfamiliar Head Start setting, get to know the child at home, at a relative's home, outdoors, or at a parent's workplace or training site.
Be flexible. Schedule follow-up meetings to discuss test results with parents at times and in locations that are convenient for families. Provide child care for siblings or transportation to the meeting site or visit the family in their home or at their work site.
Continue to learn about and support cultural competence.
Participate in training to gain knowledge and skills in cultural competence. Apply the lessons learned in training throughout The Individualizing Cycle. Continue learning about cultural competence by talking regularly with parents, policy makers, professionals, and members of the cultural communities served by your program.
Include representatives of the cultural communities served by your program on policy groups. Invite present and past parents and community members to act as decision makers.
Head Start parents can:
Make sure specialists conduct accurate evaluations.Ask other parents to share information about their experiences. The first-hand experiences of parents whose children were referred to specialists for evaluations can help you learn what to expect. Find out about specialists who completed evaluations for children who share your culture and home language.
Get to know specialists and their skills. Make sure they understand your culture and home language as well as techniques for evaluating young children. Ask them to describe how they will adapt the process to reflect your family's culture and language.
Share information about your home language and culture. Sharing information helps specialists to be sensitive to your culture and home language. For example, a specialist might be concerned because a three-year-old's physical or language skills are below the norm for his or her age. A parent can explain, Children in my community are often carried until age two. Many three-year-olds are just learning to run and climb. Or, My child was cared for by her grandmother until age two. She did not speak English until she started coming to Head Start.
Make sure your child's evaluation takes place in a familiar setting. Suggest settings in which your child feels most comfortable to ensure that accurate information is collected.
Speak up when practices are not culturally appropriate. Your comments will help your child receive an unbiased evaluation. For example, My child is not familiar with the toys you are using. Do you have any other toys he could use? Or, My daughter has never sat at a table to play. Could she sit on the floor instead?
Advocate for your child to make sure he or she receives needed services.
Join a support group or network with other parents and specialists. This is a good way to get information now and in the future when your child leaves Head Start. Be sure to learn about those who provide follow-up services.
Trust your feelings and instincts. You know best what does and does not work for your child and family. Express your feelings to staff and specialists.
Find out your rights. Head Start staff can help you learn how to make sure your child receives a culturally competent screening, evaluation, if needed, and health and educational services for children with special needs.
Help Head Start program staff achieve cultural competence.
Ask your program to establish a cultural competence training program. Suggest making this an ongoing effort. If you and a staff member cannot communicate with each other, ask for help from a bilingual and bicultural interpreter or mediator.
Ask your program to provide information in your home language. If possible, help translate forms and other communications or help the program by finding a skilled translator from your community.
*Based in part on Maria Anderson and Paula F. Goldberg for the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance System (NEC*TAS), Cultural Competence in Screening and Assessment: Implications for Young Children with Special Needs Ages Birth through Five (Minneapolis, Minn: Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) Center, 1991), 4-5 and 21-23
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