213: Diagnostic Assessment of Students Speaking South Asian Languages with Puja & Prabhu
Looking for tips on doing diagnostic assessments on students who speak different languages?
In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Puja and Prabhu to talk about diagnostic assessments of students speaking South Asian languages. They’re sharing tools and tips for us to better serve our students who speak these languages.
Puja Goel, MA, CCC-SLP, (she/her/hers) is a multilingual school-based speech language pathologist (SLP) who has worked for the 3rd largest urban district in the US and currently works in New Mexico as a supervising SLP. Puja completed her administrative licensure in the state of NM.
Puja holds a certification in DEI and is also AT certified and predominantly school-based, but has worked across all settings: early intervention, private practice, acute care, skilled nursing facilities, and outpatient settings. She has completed the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s programmatics over the years and has served on a few of their boards and committees.
Puja graduated from Northwestern University with her Master’s Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Smith College for her Bachelor’s Degree in Government. She earned a certification in Assistive Technology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is currently pursuing a terminal degree in educational leadership. Puja is a first-generation South Asian born in the United States.
Prabhu Eswaran is an ASHA-certified school-based speech-language pathologist in Los Angeles, California. He has over fifteen years of clinical experience in working with the early childhood and school-aged population. His areas of interest include child language disorders, communication disorders in culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and technology in special education.
He is actively involved in various community activities and camps relating to communication disorders in the Southern California region. He has served in the caucus board under various capacities since 2013.
In This Episode You’ll Discover:
- What the South Asian Caucus is and what they do
- The challenges SLPs face when diagnosing students who speak these languages
- How SLPs can determine if students have a disability or if it’s because of language differences
- How to properly test these students
- Where you can find a comprehensive assessment of 30 languages
- Why interpreters are so important during assessments
- How English scans are used to help diagnose
- Some different helpful tools for conducting these assessments
I hope you found this episode helpful! If you are looking for more guidance or don’t know where to start, you can contact Prabhu at prabhuslp@gmail.com and Puja at pujagoel2020@gmail.com.
You can also check out the South Asian Caucus website for more resources and Facebook page to learn more.
Join me at my next Speech Retreat conference where you can learn from topics SLPs are wanting to learn more about! Head over to speechretreat.com and join me live on March 9th or have access to 6 hours of replays!
Resources Mentioned:
Follow the South Asian Caucus of ASHA on Facebook
Visit the South Asian Caucus of ASHA website
Where We Can Connect:
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