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The Pediatric Speech Sister Show Podcast empowers speech-language pathologists and educators to build the foundation for culturally responsive practice. Join host, Melanie, a certified speech-language pathologist, certified mindset and abundance coach, and certified soul purpose coach, as she explores critical conversations around human rights, social justice, ethics, critical race theory, intercultural communication, and the nuances of linguistic diversity.
This show is your one-stop shop for expanding your cultural responsiveness. Expect a mix of solo deep dives and replays of live interviews with amazing guests. Want to see the full interviews? Head over to The Pediatric Speech Sister Network on Youtube!
Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this show is for you. Let's work together to create a more inclusive and equitable world for all children.
Welcome back to the pediatric speech sister show podcast. This is the place where we build the foundation for culture responsive practice, empowering speech language pathologists and educators to serve multicultural populations with confidence. I'm your host, Melanie Evans. I am a certified speech language pathologist and certified sole purpose coach and abundance mindset coach. In each episode, we'll explore critical conversations around human rights, social justice, ethics, and so much more.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:We'll unpack the nuances of linguistic diversity, delve into critical race theory, and equip you with the tools to navigate intercultural communication with ease. This show is a nice mix of solo episodes where I dive deep into specific topics and replays of our live interviews where we real with amazing guests. If you want to see the full interviews, head over to the Pediatric Speech Sisters Show Network on YouTube. I'll put the link in the show note. Whether you're a seasoned speech English pathologist, a passionate educator, or simply someone who wants to make a difference, this show is for you.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Let's empower ourselves and each other to create a more inclusive and equitable world for our children and the people who we work with. Stay tuned. Hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the pediatric speech sister show.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:This is an introduction to a new series called 5 ways that we can support black indigenous people of color as speech language pathologists, specifically in the clinical and educational settings. So just a little bit of a backstory about this series. I'm actually very excited about it because this is something that we started in 2020 right after the George Floyd murder. And so let me really just give you a quick history on how pediatric speech sister, how this brand became what it is today. So I started pediatric speech speech sister as my mentor, doctor DeMaria Rice, said you need to have a professional Instagram page.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:She was my chemical externship supervisor at the time. And I'm like, okay. So she helped me come up with the name pediatric speech sister because I knew I wanted to work with the peds and speech and sister. I always just called my graduate school classmate's sister. I was just very sisterly.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And so that's how my name came to be. I started posting pictures of just things that were important to me, just speechy things. Like, everyone deserves a voice and pictures of me at ASHA 2019 and different therapy materials that I was using. It was not culturally responsive anything, but then the lockdowns happened. So when the lockdowns happened, I was at home.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And just as everyone saw the horrors of COVID 19, we also saw the horrors of the George Floyd murder. And so, you know, just one time again, we would watch that 8 minutes of him pretty much being slaughtered on national television. And so, immediately, I just knew that I needed to create a post about this. And I went into this industry. I do have episodes giving you all, like, a huge explanation of my why, but I went into this with the intention of closing academic achievement gaps specifically for black and brown children.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:That was just something that I manifested. I wrote down in my journals. I wrote down on my applications. I wrote down on my scholarship applications. It was just something that I knew I wanted to do and why I'm here.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And so when this happened, I said, this is actually the time for me to do it. There wasn't I felt like I would be doing myself and the children who I serve and my lineage at a service if I didn't speak out about it. And so the way that I spoke out about it was to come up with solutions. How can we prevent something like this from happening? How can we keep these injustices against black and brown children and adults who eventually turn into adults from happening.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And so I quickly came up with the 5 ways to support black and brown children in clinical and education settings, and it became a post that went viral. And about 1800 people liked the post, which at that time, I was like, wow. Okay. So this is something that is clearly much needed. And I was very thankful to have the attention of a lot of people and just to even know that there were clinicians who were non BIPOC who were paying attention.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And so go ahead and please check out the free poster. I converted the information that I'm about to speak about today and that I spoke about on the post in the poster in the show notes. So let's go ahead and get started. Here are the 5 ways to support black and brown children in clinical and education settings. The first one is to expand your knowledge of their unique challenges.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:So children of color face unique challenges. These challenges hinder them from progressing in their education and in society. There is an immense amount of documentaries and literature that offer insight on these challenges and that give us strategies on how to combat them as educators. So do not worry. We will go a bit deeper into this.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Practicing humility. So as we know, cultural humility is part of our DNA as speech language pathologists. Okay? Cultural humility is the recognition of limits, critical self assessment, and ongoing acquisition of knowledge. I talk about cultural compatibility a lot, which is the process of learning and being.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:So cultural humility is the learning part, the part where we seek out information, the part where we reflect on what that means for us. And so, ultimately, it is up to us as people who serve these multicultural populations to be open and willing to learn about the cultural backgrounds of your students and your clients. When we talk about these things, I don't want us to just think about pre k through 12. I want us to also think about higher education students, like the aspiring speech language pathologists. I want us to also think about each other as colleagues because BIPOC colleagues that we have are impacted by social justice issues in society today.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:I don't wanna get off on a tangent on that, but, again, it is very important for all of us to practice cultural humility. So that way we can create that racial harmony and make sure that we are continuing to come up with solutions on how we can make the world a better place ultimately. So one way that we can practice cultural humility is ultimately by simply listening to each other and what we have to say, eliminating any preconceived ideas or assumptions that you might have about someone's background and be open to understanding their unique experiences. So while we are going out and looking at certain books and literature, which is amazing, that's one of the first steps. Unfortunately, sometimes, we can be generalized.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And by we, I mean, BIPOC and even non BIPOC. When you go and read books, it is very generalized. And so that's why it is important to recognize that we are not a monolith and to, really take time to get to know that individual person's values. 3rd, consider their unique experiences in your treatment and instruction. So children of color experience the world differently than other racial groups.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:It is important to navigate your interactions with children of color in a way that is culturally aware and humble. And by this, specifically, the first thing that is coming to my head is classroom etiquette. And so you might notice teachers being culturally unresponsive and contributing to the school to prison pipeline. And so as advocates of multicultural groups and especially for the SLPs listening to this, as people who are communication experts, it is up to us to make sure that teachers understand what our culturally communication behaviors versus just a kid being bad. And so I highly recommend checking out my ASHA leader articles with doctor Perry where we talk about that, and I will put that in the show notes as well.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:4, consider diverse learning styles. Now when I posted this, this was a a highly researched post, but some people combated this and said, okay. Learning styles are not a culture responsive thing. To be honest, I graduated from a historically black institution, own learning styles conducive to your cultural background. For example, let's talk about standardized test.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And when a black student is growing up in a household before they go to school, there's a certain way that they learn and pick up on their environment. Whereas if an Asian person even, the way that they grow up, there's a certain way that they pick up on their environment. And then white people, the way that they grow up, there's a certain way that they pick up on their environment. And so when we talk about standardized tests where it takes a lot of analytical thinking rather than taking the holistic view of a problem or a test item, that can be very challenging. And so that's why it is up to us to continue to do your research.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Right? Continue to do your research on diverse learning styles and even the validity of it because research always changes. I'm just telling you from my own experience and knowledge. And what the research says, this is from Kanjufu 2011. Specific cultural groups have diverse learning styles.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Black boys specifically are likely to be kinesthetic and tactile, visual, and auditory learners. So exploring and implementing these various learning styles will ensure that black and brown children are more receptive to their treatment and education. The last thing I will say for us to be better clinicians and educators for the BIPOC population is to choose materials that are relevant and inclusive. It's imperative to select materials that are considerate and relevant to the unique interest and experiences of the children that we serve. For example, exploring different books with characters for black and brown children may be represented is a great way to show that you support them in their learning.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Lately, as I'm recording this, it is AAPI month, and so I'm finding some really awesome wordless videos that celebrate Asian cultures, and so I highly recommend just continuing to seek them out. Thankfully, it's now 2024, so we have really done a great job at diversifying our treatment materials. But just keep the momentum going and continue to pour that same knowledge into the new generation of speech language pathologists. So I hope that you all enjoyed this episode. Again, please check out the free resource, 5 ways to support BIPOC children in clinical and education settings.
Melanie Y. Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Get that free poster, and I will see you in the next episode. If you liked this and if you wanna learn more about the series, please reach out to me on Instagram at pediatric speech sister or contact my team, contact at pediatric speech sister dot com, and I would love to know a little bit more about different episodes that we can bring to the table and to our community. Alright, fam. See you next time.