Immigrant, Bilingual Parents of Students With Disabilities: Positive Perceptions and Supportive Dialogue

Abstract

Parent-professional partnerships are essential for meaningful and effective inclusion of students with disabilities. Research indicates that partnerships with immigrant, bilingual parents can be challenging due in part to unrecognized parent skills and educators’ own everyday uses of English that can marginalize parents during individualized education program (IEP) meetings. However, teachers can reflect on and improve their assumptions about parents’ as well as use supportive dialogue during IEP meetings to support inclusion for students with disabilities who are learning English.

Translanguaging in Inclusive Classrooms: Learning With Children and Families

“…Rather than focusing on perceived deficits about families and children, early educators can take action to meaningfully interact with, learn about, and collaboratively plan with families of children who are multilingual, for example by asking families to complete the Family Language Patterns, Preferences, and Resources Form (see Figure 2). Educators can begin to improve their perceptions about families by reflecting on their beliefs about multilingualism (Cheatham & Lim-Mullins, 2018). Educators’ movement from deficit-oriented to strengths-based perspectives regarding families and diverse language use is key to successful family–educator partnerships.…”

“…Meaningful and functional partnerships with families who have multilingual language backgrounds are important to support young children with disabilities (Banerjee & Guiberson, 2012; Yuan & Jiang, 2019). Educators can also act on their positive beliefs about families by adapting their communication to learn about and dialogue with families while acknowledging and valuing families’ expertise about their children (Cheatham & Lim-Mullins, 2018). Educators can proactively plan for professional interpreters (for verbal communication) and translators (for written communication) who are familiar with education-related terminology to support communication in Individualized Family Service Plan/Individualized Education Program (IFSP/IEP) meetings and family–teacher conferences (Acar & Blasco, 2018).…”

“…She invited the FEL to support with language interpretation during the meeting based on the family’s request. In the days leading up to the meeting, Ms. Corinne reflected on her perceptions about families and her beliefs about multilingualism (Cheatham & Lim-Mullins, 2018) : To what extent do I believe that multilingualism is an asset rather than a liability for children and families? How can I take responsibility for meaningful interactions with families?…”

Trauma-Informed Strategies for Culturally Diverse Students Diagnosed With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

“…During IEP meetings, school counselors should understand cultural communication barriers and give adequate time for students/families to process information, ask questions, and give suggestions. Differences in language that reflect cultural values and biases can reinforce power hierarchies between educators and parents/students in which educators’ voices are championed while parents/students are unheard or rejected, even unintentionally (Cheatham & Lim-Mullins, 2018). Parents may also feel coerced into complying with this hierarchy and adopting educator’s requests and viewpoints rather than acting as equal partners (Cheatham & Lim-Mullins, 2018).…”

Randomized pilot study of a special education advocacy program for Latinx/minority parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

“…The complexities of the system may disproportionally impact parents whose first language is not English (e.g. Latinx, immigrant-origin, Spanish-speaking parents) (Cheatham & Lim-Mullins, 2018;Harris et al, 2020). This is particularly important when school-based services (e.g.…”