Posted by: Jennifer Wright, M.A., CCC-SLP
California is a globally recognized hub of linguistic diversity, with over 200 languages spoken throughout the state. Spanish ranks as the second most spoken language. Within this diverse landscape, California's public schools serve a significant population of English learners (multilingual learners) who are dually identified as meeting eligibility for Special Education under one or more of the 13 distinct disabilities identified by IDEA. In the 2022–2023 academic year, approximately 1.1 million English Learners were enrolled in California's public schools, making up 19.01% of the student population. Additionally, around 804,107 students, or 13% of the total enrollment, were receiving special education services (California Department of Education, Kidsdata.org).
The diverse linguistic backgrounds, along with the strengths that multilingual and students with disabilities contribute, highlight the need for creating learning environments that reduce barriers and embrace this learner variability. Within the group of dually-identified students, we have students who utilize AAC to support their communication. As educators, we likely work with students who may require AAC and are not native English speakers. There are a variety of valuable resources that practitioners can explore to help support the use of AAC tools and strategies for our English Learners.
Check out a few of my favorite resources:
“Imperial County SELPA was selected to provide evidence-based best practices, resources and training to LEAs for students with disabilities who are also English Learners. Given the complex needs of English Learners with Disabilities, the Imperial County SELPA provides statewide in-person and virtual training opportunities for teachers, teacher- leads/coaches, support personnel, general & special education service providers, and administrators. The Imperial County SELPA is committed to building the collective efficacy of general & special educators and their leaders, within every SELPA, to advance the achievement of English learners with Disabilities locally and across the state.”
The Project MuSE team has developed and curated extensive resources, including webinars, padlets, infographics, and more, to support our English Learners with exceptional needs. Share this site with your staff and plan to spend a good amount of time exploring it.
I would also like to highlight the incredible work of Gloria Soto and her team at San Francisco State University, specifically their Culturally Responsive AAC work.
Their definition of “What is Culturally Responsive AAC?” is as follows:
“Speech-language pathologists have identified the provision of services to children with complex communication needs from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as one of their greatest professional challenges (Light & McNaughton, 2012). In the U.S., many clients in need of AAC services come from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. Appropriate AAC service delivery to clients from CLD backgrounds requires not only appropriate technologies but also research-based evidence on the efficacy of intervention approaches (Soto, 2018). It is impossible for a clinician or a teacher to know the languages and cultures of all the clients they serve. But it is possible to create a ‘climate’ where the child is viewed as a whole; where different languages and cultural practices are included and legitimized; where there are materials not only in different modalities but in different languages; and where clients and families feel proud of and build on their home language.”
On this site, you will find curated resources from evidence-based practices, and one of the many gems you must explore is the Multilingual AAC Toolkit by Dr. Gloria Soto, Emily Alayan, and Jennifer Vega. This toolkit is described as: “The Multilingual AAC Toolkit is a collection of research-based key principles, instructional strategies, and free, practical, and easy-to-use resources that are geared towards educators and clinicians who teach multilingual learners (MLs) who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.”
You read that right, this is a FREE resource and one that they have made available to copy and then edit and customize for your own practice!
THANK YOU, Dr. Gloria Soto, Emily Alayan, and Jennifer Vega!
Social Media/Web-Based Sites:
And then of course I would like to point out some of my very favorite Social Media/Web-based sites. These specialists are always updating their sites with new information and have some incredible resources to support our multilingual population of AAC users.
Bilingüe AAC’s information and resources are developed for professionals and parents and should be explored.
I encourage you to follow Lauren Enders-Gonzalez on social media and explore her Pinterest board for Spanish Implementation Supports which has incredible resources. On this board, Lauren has also pulled from the impressive resources from Angela Moorad of OMazing Kids including this resource highlighting Spanish AAC Apps, Devices & Resources (Hablo con CAA) and several other professionals including Kathryn Dorney, Moderator for AAC for the SLP and Deanna Wagner.
Finally, I would like to highlight PrAACtical AAC founded by Carole Zangari and Robin Parker. This site has multiple searchable posts that support professionals working with our multilingual students.
Make sure to check out the first Friday of every month when a Spanish blog is published in Spanish with information, strategies, and opportunities. Check out January’s post here.
Supporting our multilingual students who are dually identified with exceptional needs in California is critical to building learners. We can tap into many evidence-based resources to make our practice more effective and meaningful and increase our cultural responsivity.
Open Access is committed to accessibility for all and recognizing students’ variability. We continue to work with our bilingual partners to ensure that our materials are accessible and relevant for learners and practitioners across the state. For example, we have partnered with Bilingüe AAC to translate our universally available Roles and Responsibilities resource into Spanish. Get the link here CAA Apoyo Colaborativo: Roles y Responsabilidades. We are also working with our Spanish-speaking Regional Lead, Natalia Silva Sepulveda, to update our English/Spanish Core Words boards. Watch for those updates coming soon on the AAC Resources page of our Open Access website. We are excited about building these relationships to grow the work that we are doing in California to make learning accessible to all.
References:
Bilingüe aac. Bilingüe AAC. (n.d.). https://www.bilingueaac.com/
Capacity building, connecting, and facilitating multidisciplinary team decisions through a tiered
approach. Homepage | Multilingual Students with Exceptional Needs. (n.d.).
Kidsdata: Data and resources about the health of children. (n.d.). https://www.kidsdata.org/
Moorad, A. (n.d.). MS, CCC-SLP. OMazing Kids AAC Consulting. https://omazingkidsllc.com/
Praactical AAC. PrAACtical AAC. (n.d.). https://praacticalaac.org/
Soto, G. (n.d.). Culturally responsive AAC. Culturally Responsive AAC | Augmentative and
Alternative Communication Studies. https://aac.sfsu.edu/content/multicultural-aac