02/16/2024
10:15 am - 11:40 am
Room: Broadway Ballroom
Invited Symposium 3
Neuropsychological Assessment Across the Language Barrier
Summary Abstract:
With increasing global migration, psychologists in many countries face the challenge of needing to assess people whose demographic characteristics do not match those of the people on whom readily available tests were standardised. This symposium focuses on one of these challenges: the language barrier.
The plurilingual structure of the brain will be demonstrated through the intraoperative mapping work done in Malaysia with people who speak many languages. Attendees will also be shown how normative data were collected on a battery of neurocognitive tests for children who do not have English as a first language in Zimbabwe, and how the lessons learned from the experience might be used by psychologists in other countries with limited normative data. Assessments across the language barrier frequently require the use of interpreters and with this in mind, guidelines on interpreter-mediated neuropsychological assessments that are being developed by the European Consortium on Cross-Cultural Neuropsychology (ECCroN) will be introduced and discussed. Finally, the lessons learned in South Africa on the effects on test scores when examinees are tested in a non-first language will be revealed, identifying themes to inform future research.
Number of Credit Hours: 1.5
Level of Instruction: Intermediate
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify key issues to take into account when assessing examinees who speak languages other than the one(s) tests are standardised for.
2. Use the information learned to increase the fairness and accuracy of assessment of neurocognitive functioning across the language barrier.
3. Apply the knowledge to test selection, assessment and test interpretation.
Presenter(s):
Sharon Truter, DLitt et Phil
Rhodes University
Sharon Truter is a registered Neuropsychologist and Counselling Psychologist, and Honorary Research Associate of Rhodes University in South Africa. She completed her professional training in 1996 at the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) where she also completed her doctorate in the
field of health psychology. She undertook a MMed course in Neuroanatomy in 2005 at Stellenbosch University. She is the immediate past president of the South African Clinical Neuropsychological Association (SACNA), having been a credentialled Full Member of the organization since 2005. She lives in Somerset West, which falls within the district of Cape Town, where she runs a private practice including assessments of clinical patients and medico-legal clients, and the training and supervision of psychologists interested in neuropsychology. She is the founder of Neuropsychology SA, an organization aimed at making neuropsychological information readily available to South African psychologists. In 2019, Dr Truter was awarded a Neuropsychology International Fellowship by the British Neuropsychological Society and the British Psychological Society’s Division of Neuropsychology. She is co-author of the book, "Cross-Cultural Cognitive Test Norms: An Advanced Collation from Africa" published in 2023.
Vigneswaran Veeramuthu, PhD
Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara, Malaysia & Society of Clinical Neuropsychology (Malaysia)
Dr Vigneswaran Veeramuthu currently serves as a resident Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist (Adult and Pediatrics) at Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara, Malaysia, a private tertiary acute hospital, providing essential and accessible neuropsychological services and care. Professionally, he has completed his doctoral training with a PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology (Neurosurgery) from University of Malaya in 2016, a clinical fellowship at Hawaii Pacific Neuroscience Institute, and recently a clinical observership at the Department of Neurosurgery, University of California San Francisco. His clinical and research interest lies predominantly in the area of neuropsychological evaluation, presurgical planning, intraoperative brain mapping, advance neuroimaging and rehabilitative interventions in neurological surgery (brain tumors and epilepsy predominantly) and disorders of consciousness (DoC). He is the founding immediate past president of the Society of Clinical Neuropsychology Malaysia , and the current Co- Chair of Asian Neuropsychological Association’s International Liaison Taskforce with frequent involvement in clinical teaching and training activities of clinical neuropsychologists, surgical registrars (neurosurgery and maxillofacial) and neuropsychology trainees, both locally and internationally. He is also actively involved in various clinical and research collaborations internationally.
Debra Machando, PhD
University of Bristol
Dr Debra Machando is a researcher with expertise in neuropsychological assessments and interventions.
T. Nielsen, PhD
Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, and Danish Dementia Research Center, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Denmark
Rune Nielsen, PhD works as a clinical neuropsychologist and associate professor at the Danish Dementia Research Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, and Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His main research interests have concerned cross-cultural neuropsychology, and dementia diagnostics, treatment, and care among minority ethnic groups as well as populations in low- and middle-income countries. He is a cofounding member of the European Consortium on Cross-Cultural Neuropsychology (ECCroN) and has been PI on several national and international studies on development of adequate cross-cultural cognitive assessment methods and psychosocial interventions for culturally, linguistically, and educationally diverse groups.
