The results of the “PISA-study “ proved to be rather devastating for the Federal Republic of Germany.
“The correlation between social
antecedents and abilities seems to be a cumulative process that starts long
before primary school” (Grundschule) stated the study
and explained that the German educational system enhances the existing
differences between the social classes rather than alleviating them (as other
countries successfully do). In particular the lack of adequate language abilites leads to academic failure of many children from
migrant families and socially marginalized German families. The difference between
the reading abilities of the best and the worst readers is greater in
The key to success seems to be early intervention of educators providing pre-school- and school children with the necessary individual support.
Two speech therapists, Anette Walz and Jörn Puttkammer,
will report on the experiences they have made working with such children. They
worked for 16 years in a community centre near
The houses themselves and the environment were often in a very sorry state and the landlord did little in terms of necessary repairs or maintenance. A lot of migrant families moved in over the years, firstly families from Turkish descent, later many “Russian-German”- families.
The community centre was located right in the middle of that area in one of its high-rise buildings which made it easily-accessible. Many migrant families and socially marginalized families find a difficult to go through the motions of gaining access to certain forms of needed therapy or counseling .The traditional middle-class approach to identify one`s need for certain therapy and then look for the right therapist often proves much too difficult for them.
We were known in the area not only as therapists. At two annual events we helped to organise a “Stadtteilfest”- a party for the local residents. At such occasions the residents could “experience” us far apart from the therapy room. For a few years we were also involved with childrens holiday camps. We, as well as the other colleagues in the centre (psychologist, social worker, teachers) started to be perceived by many residents as the people that one could approach for needed help.
“Registration” of a child for speech therapy sometimes was made at our door than rather on the phone. The interdisciplinary nature of the institution helped a lot. Children were referred to us by our colleagues, we on the other hand could discuss the situation of families with them at regular team session or as the need aroused.
While working with children from migrant families and from socially marginalized families teamwork is vital as many aspects of the family situation have to be taken into consideration in planning and conducting a successful therapy:
What is the legal status of the family?
Have they got permanent residence in
How important is their culture/religion to them? Do they use their mother-tongue at home?
How many languages are spoken in the family? Who is responsible for getting the children ready for the therapy and to the therapy on time?
These are but a few of the questions we regularly had to deal with. At the same time we tried to keep an eye on the family situation as a whole including such questions as regular nutrition or summer holiday plans for the children.
Work was sometimes burdensome especially as immediate results seemed to be lacking.
Occasionally one child after another from certain families seemed to be in need of assistance. Over the years, however, we made the experience that it is possible for these families to make some necessary changes for the benefit of their children
We also needed to adapt our own usage of language to the needs of our special clients.
Apart from learning some simple expressions, songs and nursery rhymes in migrant languages (such as Turkish e.g.) and organising advice sessions for such parents in their mother tongue we also had to adapt the usage of German. Complicated expressions and academic terms are neither understood by a lot of migrant families nor by German parents with a low educational background. Only simple speech straight to the point achieves its purpose.
Unfortunately the public subsidies that the institution had received over the years for our specific form of speech therapy were cut. We could have continued it in a private surgery with the clients from other social backgrounds (and other areas of town) that we also had treated. That proved to be impossible, though, as these clients did not like our premises, the building, the environment etc. On the other hand working with families who often were unreliable as to keeping therapy appointments also would have probably left us with a constant financial deficit.
We are nevertheless convinced that it is
possible in
We hope that the discussion after the “PISA-shock” will lead to improvements within the educational system which up to now seems to have catered mainly to the needs of middle- and upper class- families. Based on our experiences we are confident that many children with a difficult family background can and will be academically successful provided the German educational system including our profession is structured according to their needs.