I attended the SDSU program, but that was before they received a boon in research dollars and created a new, state-of-the art clinic. It was a tough program but it needed to be because of the constant changes in the field with new research coming out all of the time.
I’m a bilingual/bicultural speech pathologist. Most of my training was completed in clinical settings. I also trained in the schools. My program, in the dark ages, was 8 years because I took additional coursework on 2nd languages. I was the “resident” expert in working with multi-cultural patients at my hospital. (ex: Never touch the head of a Korean client as you may release the soul!)
Being bilingual, in this field, is tricky. It means competency in Spanish, AND also being extremely savvy in Spanish medical terminology at the level of the family’s education.
I found, over my 38 years of practice, that there were comorbidities present in most of the children I saw in the schools and clinics (EX: undetected and unresolved ear infections affecting balance and stance, vision issues, malnutrition with extremely “caried” dentition affecting health). There’s a fine balance to not humiliating the family. I was often asked to attend and translate these types of meetings.
I had colleagues, who only learned Spanish in the classroom with minimal experiences outside of the classroom.
Oftentimes, they penalized the student responses if the answers were not what the therapist expected. Colloquial comments were acceptable when I worked with students, but oftentimes, my Psych and SAI colleagues would question why I would give the patient/client credit for a response (e.g. a “pueblo” type kiddo using coarse terms -“ratero” vs. a city kiddo-“ladrón” with both responses being correct).
For this reason, when I was asked to supervise bilingual therapists, I asked the therapist/s how comfortable they were with their Spanish skills because we never wanted to humiliate or insult the child and family.
Sometimes other SLP’s, from sites within the district, would call me and ask me to translate their meetings. This happened even though the on-site therapist was supposed to be bilingual. Staff at other sites saw how I presented information to the families and felt more comfortable with me. Was it fair to me or my site with extra time demands? No. Was it fair to the parent? Yes.
You have to be careful, yet comfortable, with your level of bilingualism and be able to carry on conversations that educate the family.
Undergrad was in Communicative Disorders.