WELCOME
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ASIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:
IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT
AND INTERVENTION
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I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND**
ORIGINS:
•East Asia (Japan, Korea, China)
•Southeast Asia (Philippines, Laos, Cambodia,
Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma,
Vietnam, Malaysia)
•South Asia (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka)
• KEY RELIGIONS: Buddhism, Taoism,
Confucianism
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Southeast Asia:
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Between the years 2000-2010: **
• 46% growth in the U.S. Asian population—more
than any other racial group
• Chinese largest, Filipinos second largest
• Among Asian children and youth, more than 80%
are children of immigrants
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Overall average income level in U.S.**
• Is highest for Asians
• Asian Indians 2011 median income = $92,418
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One problem for Asians…**
• “model minority”
• Needs may go
unrecognized, unmet
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Many Indians in the U.S. are Brahmin
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II. CONTRASTNG BELIEFS, VALUES,
AND PRACTICES**
TRADITIONAL ASIAN
MAINSTREAM
Fatalism
Personal control
over envt., one’s
fate
Tradition, living with
the past
Change, future
orientation
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TRADITIONAL ASIAN
MAINSTREAM**
Group welfare
Self actualization,
privacy
Mutual interdependence
Independence, indiv.
autonomy
Hierarchy, rigid role status
Equality, status
determined by
achievement
Conformity
Challenge authority
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• TRADIT. ASIAN
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MAINSTREAM
For children, many Asian families believe (in
contrast to traditional U.S. families)
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III. CUSTOMS, COURTESIES, VALUES**
• A. Customs and Courtesies
• Hospitality
• Modesty, humility
• Respect for elders, teachers, authority figures
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B. Communication Styles**
• Formal rules of communication propriety
based on relative status of interlocutors
• May be considered appropriate to ask
personal questions
• Indirectness often the norm re: touchy
subjects
• Some Asians may smile or laugh when
embarrassed or angry
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For example, key Filipino cultural
values:
• Amor proprio
• Pakikisama
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IV. HEALTH CARE AND DISABILITIES**
Visible vs. invisible disabilities
Disabilities fate, karma,
sins committed by
ancestors
Families may be ashamed to
bring a child for help if
his/her disability represents
sins committed by
parents/ancestors
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As SLPs…**
• We may have trouble getting families to
acknowledge disabilities and sign IEPs for special
education services
• What can we do when this happens?
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V. ASIAN EDUCATION**
• Hugely valued
• In recent years, 50% of Asians 25
yrs. and older had a Bachelor’s
degree or higher compared with
28.5% of all Americans
• Asian children attend preschool at
a higher rate than other groups
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In most Asian countries, there is:**
• Great respect for teachers
• Heavy reliance on rote learning, memorization
• Teachers are very authoritarian
• Class is formal; teachers lecture
• Teachers don’t admit mistakes
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Differences--Asian and American Schools
(Stevenson; compared Beijing & Chicago)
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• When asked what they’d wish for:
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Abboud & Kim (cited in text):**
• Role of Asian children in families: 1) respect elders and
obey parents, 2) work hard and do well in school to
secure a bright future
• Many Asian parents work hard all day and morph into
educators at night—that is their role
• Asian parents put academics first, while other parents
often put sports/athletics first; kids are too tired to
study
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VI. ASIAN LANGUAGE
CONSIDERATIONS**
A. Introduction
Many languages have numerous dialects
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Some Languages are Tonal**
• Khmer (Cambodia), Japanese, Korean not
tonal languages
• Vietnamese, Chinese, Laotian are tonal;
each tone represents a meaning change
• Vietnamese has 6 tones, for example
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Please know in detail…
• The charts on pp. 134135
• Chart p. 132 not on test

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Linguistically…
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For example, in Singapore, people speak: (don’t
need to memo each lang. for exam)**
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bengali
Chinese
East Punjabi
English
Hindi
Japanese
Java
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Malay
Sindhi
Teluga
Thai
Korean
VII. IMPLICATIONS FOR
PROFESSIONALS**
• We may need to address the husband first because the
wife is subordinate
• It may be disgraceful for the family to admit to or discuss
a child’s disability; entire family lineage disgraced—
intervention may be rejected
• Some families do not believe that it is important to talk
with young children and babies; may not be open to
early intervention
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To, Stokes, Cheung, & T’sou (Journal of Speech,
Language, and Hearing Research) Narrative
assessment for Cantonese-speaking children.**
• Narrative skills strong predictors of later language
outcomes
• This study attempted to create some norms for
evaluating narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking
children
• Studied typically-developing subjects and those with
specific language impairment (SLI)
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The researchers found that:
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These children also…
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So we know that…**
• Assessment of
children’s
narrative skills is
very promising 
differentiating
lang. difference
from LI
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It is important for us to understand
Filipinos…**
In 2000, there were
24,516 Filipinos in
Sacramento County
• In recent years,
this has increased
to 41,455 (69%
increase)
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Former students from this class:**
• Filipinos predominantly Roman Catholic—enlist
help of priest, church members
• Family--huge sacrifices to come to U.S. for a
better life for Ch
• 150 dialects
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• Bahala na--
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Tasha Ketphanh—Laos: (former
student from this class)
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Tasha (Laos; continued)
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I have found that Asians…**
• Are generally terrific to
work with
• Very appreciative
• If they understand
WHY, they will do carry
over
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