Text

theses

Healthcare professionals are legally obligated to provide interpretation services to people with limited English-speaking proficiency (Chen, Youdelman, & Brooks, 2007). While interpretation services certainly aid in communication between people who speak different languages, the task becomes more complicated when an additional specialized vocabulary is utilized, such as healthcare terminology that is not considered everyday language. For example, in the field of autism treatment, interpreters may be asked to translate terms within applied behavior analysis (ABA). Current literature has demonstrated that interpreters make frequent errors related to specialized vocabulary that can significantly impact treatment (Anazawa, Ishkawa, & Kiuchi, 2012; Baker, Hayes, & Fortier, 1998; Flores et al., 2003; Searight & Searight, 2009). However, there has been little investigation into methods to improve interpretation. The few studies that do exist suggest time-consuming and expensive interventions (Acosta & Christo, 1982; Beeber, Lewis, Cooper, Maxwell, & Sandelowski, 2009; Bergunde & Pollabauer, 2019). The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a brief, low-cost intervention to improve the accuracy of translation of ABA terminology, or jargon, from English to Spanish. Three participants were asked to translate vignettes that included ten ABA terms, before and after they were provided with a brief Spanish glossary of ABA terms. Results indicated that the intervention significantly improved participants’ interpretation accuracy. The results of this study address current gaps in the literature and provide an alternative to current interventions that may potentially be effective with both professional and ad hoc interpreters.

ETD_10454

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-mc12-cb02

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.