Interview with Kathryn Kohnert, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, University of Minnesota
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Schreiber: Hi Kathi. Thanks for visiting with me this morning. Let's start by having you tell just a little bit about your background and where you currently teach.Kohnert: I did my masters degree in speech-language pathology at San Diego State in the late 80s, early 90s. I've been a certified speec
Schreiber: Hi Kathi. Thanks for visiting with me this morning. Let's start by having you tell just a little bit about your background and where you currently teach.
Kohnert: I did my masters degree in speech-language pathology at San Diego State in the late 80s, early 90s. I've been a certified speech-language pathologist since 1992. I went back for my doctoral work in 1996 at the University of California at San Diego and San Diego State University; they have a joint doctoral program in language and communicative disorders. I specialized in language across the lifespan in linguistically diverse learners, specifically looking at cognitive and language interaction within the social context. I finished my doctoral degree in 2000 and came to the University of Minnesota at that time and I've been here ever since.
Schreiber: So now at the University of Minnesota, you've done some very interesting and impressive things to promote knowledge and competencies in serving linguistically diverse learners. In particular, a project you've lead and one that I'd like www.speechpathology.com readers to know about, is the recently launched website called Clinical Decision Making with Linguistically Diverse Learners www.clinicaldecision.umn.edu. It's an impressive website and I'd like you to tell us a little about the history and mission of this online resource.
Kohnert: The project that you see on the website really had its origin in a statewide training program, developed and implemented several years ago. The idea came about over lunch with my colleague, Dr. Leslie Glaze. At that time, Leslie was Director of Clinical Programs in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Services at the University of Minnesota. Leslie and I were always looking for opportunities to work together and we had just received notice of the availability of an ASHA Foundation grant for multicultural issues. This was in 2002 or 2003. This seemed like a great collaborative opportunity for us, as one of our missions is to build awareness, interest, and competencies in professional service to linguistically diverse learners. We have a large population of linguistically diverse learners here in Minnesota. So Leslie and I wrote a grant to do a statewide training program to train school personnel throughout the state of Minnesota, speech-language pathologists in particular, to better serve linguistically diverse learners in school settings. With a LOT of help from our amazing colleagues on the Multicultural Committee of the Minnesota Speech-Language-Hearing Association we were able to include representatives from over 80 different school districts into this multi-part workshop series. Training materials were developed centrally at the University of Minnesota. A core group of seasoned professionals with expertise in serving linguistically diverse learners delivered this curriculum to participants in six different regions throughout the state, during weekend workshops. We were then able to get all participants and trainers to the University of Minnesota for a final workshop and brainstorming session. As a complement to the regional workshop series, we also had a web-based threaded discussion in which speech-language pathologists and students from around the state could post and/or respond to specific clinical questions.
From our perspective this "local" (or statewide) training project was very successful. Responses from workshop trainers as well as participants were extraordinary. And Leslie and I benefited so much from interactions with these professionals that our efforts in this regard were truly reinforced. We then began to get queries from people in different states, from individuals and also people in training centers, saying "Gosh, we heard you were doing this. Can we use your materials?" And our response has always been, "Of course." This is the goal, to disseminate as broadly as possible.
The numerous queries from colleagues around the country prompted us to ask, "What can we do to really make the materials available on a wider scale across the country?" And Leslie really came up with the solution here. The website is definitely her brain child. Again with ASHA funding and considerable help from colleagues, we have our newly launched website on Clinical Decision Making with Linguistically Diverse Learners. This website is built on the foundation of the more personalized training done previously at the state level. To implement and maintain the website we rely HEAVILY on the technical expertise of Pui Fong Kan, a speech-language pathologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota. Pui Fong's exceptional IT [instructional technology] skills, along with Leslie's extraordinary logistical skills and "let's do it!" spirit have resulted in this website, which provides a starting point for collecting, synthesizing, and sharing information, ideas, and resources.
Schreiber: And it is an excellent website! When a viewer visits this site, he or she is first going to see the self-study curriculum, which is the tutorial to explain the basics and assessment and intervention with linguistically diverse learners.
Kohnert: Yes, when visitors go to the website, they will see the home page where it explains each website component, including the learning components that are available. We encourage everyone to start with the Gateway Introductory Self-Study Curriculum. If you can only do one thing, we encourage people to do that one--the self-study. This presentation provides an introduction and overview of typical patterns of dual-language learning, procedures for assessment, and critical information to consider in planning intervention for dual-language learners with communication impairments. A list of references is also available here. This tutorial includes quizzes, with answers and explanations, to reinforce learning. We encourage professionals as well as students to view this tutorial and to share with colleagues.
Schreiber: I noticed that viewing the self-study curriculum requires Macromedia Breeze?
Kohnert: It does, but you can download it for FREE online at the Macromedia website if you need it.
Kohnert: And there's no audio with this self-study presentation but there's another "Breeze" lecture, one of the specialty lectures that we're adding, by Peggy Nelson on hearing and classroom acoustics that has audio. And in that lecture, Dr. Nelson talks you through the presentation. This presentation is more research-based as opposed to the broad-based general information that is in the introductory self-study curriculum.
Schreiber: In addition to the self-study curriculum, there are three other distinct learning components at this website. The Breeze lectures you mentioned are a second component. And right now there's one lecture but I'm assuming as the year progresses, you will add in a second, third, and fourth lecture.
Kohnert: That is correct. The specialty lectures (the Breeze lectures) are really taking a topic and a research area and presenting it more specifically. They will incorporate a little bit more research and instead of general information about bilingualism or general information about diversity, the lectures will address specific issues like how do classroom acoustics impact linguistically diverse learners. Lectures 2, 3, and 4 will be recorded and posted during winter and spring, 2007.
Schreiber: And there are two additional areas to explore on the website. One is to ask a colleague a question. That's the interactive discussion forum, which is a threaded discussion format.
Kohnert: Yes. We really encourage professionals and students from around the country to visit the "Ask a Colleague" link to ask a clinical question, respond to a question posted by someone else, or just read the on-going discussion about particular cases.
We want to develop this threaded discussion among professionals and students from around the country for a number of reasons. I personally get several questions a week e-mailed to me from people who have found my name in different places and are encountering some of these issues for the first time. I am happy to respond to these questions, but in some cases my response is not the only one, or perhaps not even the best one (!). In addition, others may benefit from viewing these discussions, from reading question and answer exchanges.
So, part of this interactive forum is to get broader perspectives--not just my perspective--on a topic and allow people to view these clinical discussions. This interactive "Ask a Colleague" forum is building slowly. We have a list of guest mentors who are individuals from around the country who have contacted us because they've seen the website and said, "You know what, I can participate. I have some expertise here and I'm willing to share." Other mentors are individuals that we have contacted because of their excellent professional reputations in serving linguistically diverse learners. Guest mentors take responsibility for the discussion for a given week or two during our funding year. So these guest mentors are individuals who have volunteered to be available for one or two weeks throughout our funding year to monitor discussions and/or respond to queries. Names and affiliations are provided on the website under the "Guest Mentors" link. All guest mentors have their CCC's, have had the certificate for at least three to five years, and have an expertise in serving linguistically diverse learners. We are also ready to welcome new guest mentors!
Schreiber: In summary then, readers can post a question; respond to someone else's posting; they can just read the discussions that are going on; or they can be a guest mentor and help to answer questions. However, they don't have to be a guest mentor in order to comment on a question.
Kohnert: Oh no, not at all. They don't have to. In fact, what we've asked our guest mentors to do is to monitor the discussion; to just make sure that when someone posts a question, it is responded to. And sometimes our guest mentors might say, "But I don't actually know the response to that," and they're sophisticated enough that they know someone who does. So the guest mentors are the ones who will respond to the questions or make sure that someone else does. But no, you can get on and ask a question, respond to a question, or just be an anonymous reader.
Schreiber: It's an impressive networking device.
Kohnert: Yes, the interactive forum helps us tremendously because monitoring the questions is quite time-consuming and it's nobody's full-time or even part-time job. Everyone is volunteering their time and expertise in this regard. We certainly cannot do it all. And the reality is that we don't want to do it all. The collective knowledge of this group of mentors is just phenomenal. So it presents a wonderful opportunity for us to learn from them too. And people in different parts of the country have different questions, different needs, and different resources. So other people are certainly much more qualified to speak to those. And it's a way for all of us to kind of pool our collective knowledge and get involved. We're really hoping that this part of the website builds a little more. We just launched the website a month and a half ago so we're not too worried yet, but our funding period is short. So we encourage anyone with a question, an answer, or an interest in viewing clinical case study exchanges to go the "Ask a Colleague" link.
Schreiber: Finally, you have Related Links at the website that are very helpful. You have lots of them.
Kohnert: We do! We culled through lots of information and tried to get representation for different language groups, and we tried to really focus more on language sources and cultural sources specifically relevant for speech-language pathologists. But there are some wonderful things out there on the web. We don't have them all listed, but we do have some that are very, very helpful. We have some great ones for Hmong, some for Vietnamese, some great ones for Spanish, some great ones for Mandarin that are really helpful. Many of them are developed by other SLPs.
Schreiber: I see you also link to sites with other helpful links, as an example, to Judith Kuster's Net Connections for Communication Disorders and Sciences.
Kohnert: I think there are two or three like that and Judy Kuster's is one of the absolute best; where our site is only the starting point for more information. Bilingual Therapies is another example of a site with a wealth of information.
Schreiber: I applaud you and Leslie for pulling the website together and applaud all of your colleagues who are behind the scenes as well.
Kohnert: Thank you. I am very grateful to be part of this.
Schreiber: And I should congratulate you! You've done so much in the area of bilingualism, linguistic diversity, and "multicultural affairs" that at this past ASHA (2006), you and Luis Riquelme received the ASHA 2006 Certificate of Recognition for Special Contributions in Multicultural Affairs. Congratulations to you both!
Kohnert: That was really a nice and unexpected honor. It was particularly nice as it was initiated and supported by doctoral students and a dear colleague. It was great.
Schreiber: Kathi, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. If our reader's would like to contact you or Leslie, your contact information is also available at the website: www.clinicaldecision.umn.edu
Kohnert: I did my masters degree in speech-language pathology at San Diego State in the late 80s, early 90s. I've been a certified speech-language pathologist since 1992. I went back for my doctoral work in 1996 at the University of California at San Diego and San Diego State University; they have a joint doctoral program in language and communicative disorders. I specialized in language across the lifespan in linguistically diverse learners, specifically looking at cognitive and language interaction within the social context. I finished my doctoral degree in 2000 and came to the University of Minnesota at that time and I've been here ever since.
Schreiber: So now at the University of Minnesota, you've done some very interesting and impressive things to promote knowledge and competencies in serving linguistically diverse learners. In particular, a project you've lead and one that I'd like www.speechpathology.com readers to know about, is the recently launched website called Clinical Decision Making with Linguistically Diverse Learners www.clinicaldecision.umn.edu. It's an impressive website and I'd like you to tell us a little about the history and mission of this online resource.
Kohnert: The project that you see on the website really had its origin in a statewide training program, developed and implemented several years ago. The idea came about over lunch with my colleague, Dr. Leslie Glaze. At that time, Leslie was Director of Clinical Programs in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Services at the University of Minnesota. Leslie and I were always looking for opportunities to work together and we had just received notice of the availability of an ASHA Foundation grant for multicultural issues. This was in 2002 or 2003. This seemed like a great collaborative opportunity for us, as one of our missions is to build awareness, interest, and competencies in professional service to linguistically diverse learners. We have a large population of linguistically diverse learners here in Minnesota. So Leslie and I wrote a grant to do a statewide training program to train school personnel throughout the state of Minnesota, speech-language pathologists in particular, to better serve linguistically diverse learners in school settings. With a LOT of help from our amazing colleagues on the Multicultural Committee of the Minnesota Speech-Language-Hearing Association we were able to include representatives from over 80 different school districts into this multi-part workshop series. Training materials were developed centrally at the University of Minnesota. A core group of seasoned professionals with expertise in serving linguistically diverse learners delivered this curriculum to participants in six different regions throughout the state, during weekend workshops. We were then able to get all participants and trainers to the University of Minnesota for a final workshop and brainstorming session. As a complement to the regional workshop series, we also had a web-based threaded discussion in which speech-language pathologists and students from around the state could post and/or respond to specific clinical questions.
From our perspective this "local" (or statewide) training project was very successful. Responses from workshop trainers as well as participants were extraordinary. And Leslie and I benefited so much from interactions with these professionals that our efforts in this regard were truly reinforced. We then began to get queries from people in different states, from individuals and also people in training centers, saying "Gosh, we heard you were doing this. Can we use your materials?" And our response has always been, "Of course." This is the goal, to disseminate as broadly as possible.
The numerous queries from colleagues around the country prompted us to ask, "What can we do to really make the materials available on a wider scale across the country?" And Leslie really came up with the solution here. The website is definitely her brain child. Again with ASHA funding and considerable help from colleagues, we have our newly launched website on Clinical Decision Making with Linguistically Diverse Learners. This website is built on the foundation of the more personalized training done previously at the state level. To implement and maintain the website we rely HEAVILY on the technical expertise of Pui Fong Kan, a speech-language pathologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota. Pui Fong's exceptional IT [instructional technology] skills, along with Leslie's extraordinary logistical skills and "let's do it!" spirit have resulted in this website, which provides a starting point for collecting, synthesizing, and sharing information, ideas, and resources.
Schreiber: And it is an excellent website! When a viewer visits this site, he or she is first going to see the self-study curriculum, which is the tutorial to explain the basics and assessment and intervention with linguistically diverse learners.
Kohnert: Yes, when visitors go to the website, they will see the home page where it explains each website component, including the learning components that are available. We encourage everyone to start with the Gateway Introductory Self-Study Curriculum. If you can only do one thing, we encourage people to do that one--the self-study. This presentation provides an introduction and overview of typical patterns of dual-language learning, procedures for assessment, and critical information to consider in planning intervention for dual-language learners with communication impairments. A list of references is also available here. This tutorial includes quizzes, with answers and explanations, to reinforce learning. We encourage professionals as well as students to view this tutorial and to share with colleagues.
Schreiber: I noticed that viewing the self-study curriculum requires Macromedia Breeze?
Kohnert: It does, but you can download it for FREE online at the Macromedia website if you need it.
Kohnert: And there's no audio with this self-study presentation but there's another "Breeze" lecture, one of the specialty lectures that we're adding, by Peggy Nelson on hearing and classroom acoustics that has audio. And in that lecture, Dr. Nelson talks you through the presentation. This presentation is more research-based as opposed to the broad-based general information that is in the introductory self-study curriculum.
Schreiber: In addition to the self-study curriculum, there are three other distinct learning components at this website. The Breeze lectures you mentioned are a second component. And right now there's one lecture but I'm assuming as the year progresses, you will add in a second, third, and fourth lecture.
Kohnert: That is correct. The specialty lectures (the Breeze lectures) are really taking a topic and a research area and presenting it more specifically. They will incorporate a little bit more research and instead of general information about bilingualism or general information about diversity, the lectures will address specific issues like how do classroom acoustics impact linguistically diverse learners. Lectures 2, 3, and 4 will be recorded and posted during winter and spring, 2007.
Schreiber: And there are two additional areas to explore on the website. One is to ask a colleague a question. That's the interactive discussion forum, which is a threaded discussion format.
Kohnert: Yes. We really encourage professionals and students from around the country to visit the "Ask a Colleague" link to ask a clinical question, respond to a question posted by someone else, or just read the on-going discussion about particular cases.
We want to develop this threaded discussion among professionals and students from around the country for a number of reasons. I personally get several questions a week e-mailed to me from people who have found my name in different places and are encountering some of these issues for the first time. I am happy to respond to these questions, but in some cases my response is not the only one, or perhaps not even the best one (!). In addition, others may benefit from viewing these discussions, from reading question and answer exchanges.
So, part of this interactive forum is to get broader perspectives--not just my perspective--on a topic and allow people to view these clinical discussions. This interactive "Ask a Colleague" forum is building slowly. We have a list of guest mentors who are individuals from around the country who have contacted us because they've seen the website and said, "You know what, I can participate. I have some expertise here and I'm willing to share." Other mentors are individuals that we have contacted because of their excellent professional reputations in serving linguistically diverse learners. Guest mentors take responsibility for the discussion for a given week or two during our funding year. So these guest mentors are individuals who have volunteered to be available for one or two weeks throughout our funding year to monitor discussions and/or respond to queries. Names and affiliations are provided on the website under the "Guest Mentors" link. All guest mentors have their CCC's, have had the certificate for at least three to five years, and have an expertise in serving linguistically diverse learners. We are also ready to welcome new guest mentors!
Schreiber: In summary then, readers can post a question; respond to someone else's posting; they can just read the discussions that are going on; or they can be a guest mentor and help to answer questions. However, they don't have to be a guest mentor in order to comment on a question.
Kohnert: Oh no, not at all. They don't have to. In fact, what we've asked our guest mentors to do is to monitor the discussion; to just make sure that when someone posts a question, it is responded to. And sometimes our guest mentors might say, "But I don't actually know the response to that," and they're sophisticated enough that they know someone who does. So the guest mentors are the ones who will respond to the questions or make sure that someone else does. But no, you can get on and ask a question, respond to a question, or just be an anonymous reader.
Schreiber: It's an impressive networking device.
Kohnert: Yes, the interactive forum helps us tremendously because monitoring the questions is quite time-consuming and it's nobody's full-time or even part-time job. Everyone is volunteering their time and expertise in this regard. We certainly cannot do it all. And the reality is that we don't want to do it all. The collective knowledge of this group of mentors is just phenomenal. So it presents a wonderful opportunity for us to learn from them too. And people in different parts of the country have different questions, different needs, and different resources. So other people are certainly much more qualified to speak to those. And it's a way for all of us to kind of pool our collective knowledge and get involved. We're really hoping that this part of the website builds a little more. We just launched the website a month and a half ago so we're not too worried yet, but our funding period is short. So we encourage anyone with a question, an answer, or an interest in viewing clinical case study exchanges to go the "Ask a Colleague" link.
Schreiber: Finally, you have Related Links at the website that are very helpful. You have lots of them.
Kohnert: We do! We culled through lots of information and tried to get representation for different language groups, and we tried to really focus more on language sources and cultural sources specifically relevant for speech-language pathologists. But there are some wonderful things out there on the web. We don't have them all listed, but we do have some that are very, very helpful. We have some great ones for Hmong, some for Vietnamese, some great ones for Spanish, some great ones for Mandarin that are really helpful. Many of them are developed by other SLPs.
Schreiber: I see you also link to sites with other helpful links, as an example, to Judith Kuster's Net Connections for Communication Disorders and Sciences.
Kohnert: I think there are two or three like that and Judy Kuster's is one of the absolute best; where our site is only the starting point for more information. Bilingual Therapies is another example of a site with a wealth of information.
Schreiber: I applaud you and Leslie for pulling the website together and applaud all of your colleagues who are behind the scenes as well.
Kohnert: Thank you. I am very grateful to be part of this.
Schreiber: And I should congratulate you! You've done so much in the area of bilingualism, linguistic diversity, and "multicultural affairs" that at this past ASHA (2006), you and Luis Riquelme received the ASHA 2006 Certificate of Recognition for Special Contributions in Multicultural Affairs. Congratulations to you both!
Kohnert: That was really a nice and unexpected honor. It was particularly nice as it was initiated and supported by doctoral students and a dear colleague. It was great.
Schreiber: Kathi, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. If our reader's would like to contact you or Leslie, your contact information is also available at the website: www.clinicaldecision.umn.edu