Performance of Spanish/English bilingual children on a spanish-language neuropsychological battery: preliminary normative data.

Despite a population of close to 40 million Hispanics/Latinos in the USA who have at least some level of Spanish/English bilingualism, there are few neuropsychological tests and norms available for this group, especially when assessing Spanish/English bilingual children. The purpose of the present research was to provide preliminary normative data for a bilingual population on a comprehensive neuropsychological battery developed for Spanish-speaking children (Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil). Norms by age are presented on the performance of 108 Spanish/English bilingual children (ages 5-14 years) and are expected to be useful when testing other Spanish/English bilingual children in the USA.

Professional considerations for improving the neuropsychological evaluation of Hispanics: a National Academy of Neuropsychology education paper.

In a national survey, 82% of U.S. neuropsychologists who offered services to Hispanics self-reported inadequate preparation to work with this population (Echemendia, Harris, Congett, Diaz, & Puente, 1997). The purpose of this paper is to improve the quality and accessibility of neuropsychological services for Hispanic people living in the United States by giving guidance for service delivery, training, and organizational policy. General guidance towards this end comes from professional ethics for psychologists and interpreters/translators, federal civil rights law, the International Test Commission, and the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, among others. This guidance is specifically applied here to cover professional cultural and linguistic competence of neuropsychologists, psychometrists, interpreters, translators, and consultants; languages of evaluation; use of interpreters; evaluation of acculturation; test translation, adaptation, and interpretation; application of test norms; intervention issues; reimbursement; and organizational issues.