HWD Interview- Chelsea Smaellie

Name: Ingrid Taylor

Early Intervention Experience: Transition and service coordinator
1) What is your cultural background?
She is Mexican
2) How have you seen Latino mothers and fathers react to the service
their child is given?
They dont know about the services, they may be shy or not willing to
acknowledge their childs disability.
3) How does the language barrier affect the service received by Latin
families?
In her program every Latino family has a fluent or native Spanish speaker for
their service provider, but it is not required by law so many places will not
always have bilingual service providers
4) In an average agency, how many bilingual service workers are
available?
They started with 2 but now they 9, they always have a native speaker or
someone that went on a mission with a Latino family, the early intervention
always are Spanish speaking, depends on an agency.
5) Do you feel that there is a need for more bilingual service workers?
Yes definitely, the number of Mexicans is way higher, Orem and Provo are the
biggest cities in the Hispanic, all three teams do Spanish speaking, based on
the city that are served, they assign a certain team for that area, central part
of Utah is where most Spanish speakers live.
6) Do you feel that early interventionists and-or service providers need
to be more culturally sensitive and aware to the Latin community?
Keep in mind the family will have grandparents, uncles, aunts, include
everyone!!
Grandma may be the one that stays with the child the most, they all value
each others opinions, if they are not all on the same page they wont be able
to implement the strategies,
Mexican: it is taboo to say that their child has special needs, they tend to
hide their child or be ashamed of their child, in Mexico they dont have very
good programs that is why they hide them or are ashamed of them, in 2010
they barely started deaf programs in Mexico, you may just need to share
numbers with them, help them feel that they are NOT THE ONLY ONE. Help
them find another family that they can relate with (similar things), the
families that trust you
Take a lot of time to EARN THEIR TRUST. Dont suggest things from the get
go, wait awhile,
7) What aspects should they understand about the Latin culture to
make the service more available to the families?
No they do not realize all the services that are available, they are trying to
work with the pediatricians, the pediatricians need to refer, they will go door
to door to help the families know what services are available, they are doing
television interviews here in January coming up, they should be talking by
two, they are trying to teach pediatricians to know what they signs are and

when to refer the children, REASON WHY: a lot of the times the communities
are tight nit, they are scared to go outside of what they know or go around,
we could put up flyers at markets, they can be shy to look for services.
8) What advice would you give to students who are preparing to
become Early Interventionists in relation to working with the Latin
community?
One of the bigger things is to know, find someone that has been to that
certain country, do not say no to food because they give you food, you need
to accept what they give, they could not call you back, set boundaries, tell
them the reasons why you can or cant accept, FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN
TELL ME THE RIGHT WORDS TO USE, research it! Know what words to use, do
not assume that they are from Mexico. a lot of OT therapist say that after 2
years old should not have a bottle, but the families say that it is a culture
things, same thing with binkies, Hispanics think that if they dont speak until
four then that is okay, some families get really offended, find out exactly
where they are from, different Spanish is used.

Name: Jackie Nunez

Position/Background: service coordinator manager Kids on the move, born in
El Salvador lived in CA since she was 6 years old, she feels like culturally she is
mixed culturally, Jackie helps the nurses and school district
Notes from Her interview:
There is diversity within the culture and the programs, they may not even
celebrate thanksgiving,
Education level, age of immigration, country, some may be more aware of
developmental delays or diagnosis, a child may be spoiled they may call their
child lazy, or they may think that a child may not, Latins are very outspoken and
they will say things that are blunt, the parents may say that the child doesnt
want to talk, mimado=spoiled multiple versions of this word, stubborn, parents
never think what could it be?
They think that it is either their fault or the childs fault, they dont wonder but
they blame someone.
They have to take all of the referrals all the time. Their work load fluctuates but
they are very busy most of the time.
Do you have any advice working with the Latino families?
Kids on the Move use native speakers for the Service Providers who may have
grown up with the culture. Kids on the Move is trying to market more to the
Latino community, they are doing a fifteen minute interview with the Spanish TV
and radio stations, many people are not aware of the services, We should help
create awareness.
How have you seen the culture affect the services?
It varies family to family, for some families it is a challenge to seek for help, they
dont want to ask for help or admit that their child has a problem.

They have three teams and each team they have a Spanish coordinator and
provider.
THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE between culturally appropriate vs. developmentally
appropriate
Co-sleeping is normal in the Latin community.
A big difference is INDEPENDENCE: we encourage independence, they tend to
not encourage it, their parents really want you to eat your food, so they will feed
you until you do it, picky eating: we think it is okay to not let them eat, but in the
Latin culture they force them to eat.