Cultural competence can be defined as the knowledge and skills a provider requires in order to meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of clients, patients, and/or students while providing impactful services.

This micro course examines a scenario involving a speech-language pathology graduate student with a fluency disorder and his clinical supervisor. The presenter shares the scenario, provides context, and then walks you through a guided reflection to help you explore questions related to cultural competence, like, “What are ways I can obtain information about the cultural traditions, preferences, and experiences of a client, patient, or student?” and “How can I partner with them to gain this essential information?”

This course is the first in a series of four micro courses meant to be taken together, which explore the ways in which culture plays a critical role in every part of our work and how our own individual cultures can, and do, influence our clinical practice.

The scenario in this course comes from the book Exploring Cultural Responsiveness: Guided Scenarios for Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) Professionals.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Define cultural competence 
• Identify the cultural variables present in situations to set the stage for personal reflection

Contents

1. Defining cultural competence
2. Overview of guided reflection framework
3. Scenario: “I Stutter and Have an Accent. Can I Be Your SLP?”
4. Notes and personal reflection
5. Guided reflection
6. Learning assessment

DEI Professional Development Requirement

This course counts toward the ASHA certification maintenance professional development requirement for DEI (which encompasses cultural competency; cultural humility; culturally responsive practice; and diversity, equity, and inclusion). See more courses that count toward this requirement or read more about professional development requirements for certification maintenance.

Presenter Information

Alicia Fleming Hamilton, MS, CCC-SLP (she/her/hers), is a bilingual (Spanish-English) speech-language pathologist who works with the Minneapolis Public Schools. She specializes in bilingual assessment in early childhood populations, bilingual clinical education and supervision, and multicultural assessment and intervention. She was the 2019 president of the Minnesota Speech-Language-Hearing Association, served on the ASHA Speech-Language Pathology Advisory Council and the ASHA Multicultural Issues Board, and currently serves on the ASHA Board of Ethics.

Financial Disclosures:

• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation
• Bilingual speech-language pathologist (Spanish/English), Minneapolis Public Schools

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• Editor of Exploring Cultural Responsiveness: Guided Scenarios for Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) Professionals
• Formerly a member of the ASHA Multicultural Issues Board
• Member of the ASHA Board of Ethics

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete the learning assessment by March 1, 2028.

Program History and CE Information

Content origination date: January 24, 2022
End date: March 1, 2028

This course is offered for 0.05 ASHA CEUs (Introductory level, Related area).