Multi-Cultural tools targeting communication for South-Asians
What is it?
Picture description tasks (PDT) are tools that are used by speech and language therapists to help them conduct an informal assessment of a potential patient who may have communication difficulties due to different speech/language/ cognitive and communication disorders. They can be used by patients of all ages, ranging from toddlers to senior citizens. They can also be used within therapy sessions.
They consist of different scenarios or picture scenes of various situations represented in a visual pictorial form. This could be either animated or a photograph of a real-life scenario e.g., of a grocery store or a park. It targets various aspects of their speech-language and cognitive-linguistic skills.
The resource contains the following illustrations of culturally and religiously diverse festivals and scenarios.
- Diwali
- Raksha Bandhan
- Holi
- Karvachauth
- Navratri
- Vaisakhi
- Eid
- Ramadhan
- Mandir/temple
- Masjid/Mosque
- Gurdwara
- Grocery shopping
- Home scene
- Bank
- Indian goodbye
- Bus stop
- Tailor
It was important for us to create a resource that targets a plethora of language and communication components. We also wanted to provide you with our rationale and evidence based practice in a comprehensive research paper (included in the booklet).
The paper outlines what PDT is and what it targets and therapy activities;
- Vocabulary
- Verbs
- Nouns/Pronouns
- Prepositions
- Adjectives
- Sentence formation
- WH-Questioning
- Following directions
- Narrations
- Conversations
- Attention and memory
- Inference, reasoning, and problem-solving
- Speech intelligibility and fluency
Who can use this resource?
The PDT Assessment is intended to be used by
- Qualified speech and language therapists for conducting informal assessments or can be used as a therapy tool for potential South Asian clients who may have communication difficulties due to various speech, language, cognitive, and communication disorders.
- This tool allows the speech and language therapists to improve their practices in cultural responsiveness by using culturally appropriate tools and resources for their clients in speech therapy, further affirming respect and interest in their clients’ culture.
- This resource can also be used by qualified teachers to excite and engage children’s learning by reinforcing their language skills and enhancing their communication skills.
- Teachers can use this resource to build cultural competence in classrooms by celebrating traditions and cultural differences, supporting diversity, equality, and inclusion. It consists of different scenarios represented in visual pictorial form and targets various aspects of speech-language and cognitive-linguistic skills.