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Asian-Pacific Americans originate from Pacific Asia or are descendants of Asian-Pacific island immigrants. Numbering 10,477,000 in the United States, Asian-Pacific Americans are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, representing 3.8% of the nation's population and 10% of California's population (Population Reference Bureau, 2001). By the year 2020, Asian-American children in U.S. schools will total about 4.4 million.
The recent Asian influx represents a diverse group from Southeast Asia, China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other Pacific Rim areas. In general, Pacific Asia is divided into the following regions: East Asia (China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea), Southeast Asia (Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand), the Indian subcontinent, or South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), and the Pacific islands (Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand, and Australia). Asian-Pacific populations speak many languages, and their English is influenced by various dialects and languages.
Asian-Pacific Americans are extremely diverse in all aspects of life, including attitudes toward disability and treatment, childrearing practices, languages, and culture. The Asian-Pacific island cultures, however, have interacted with and influenced each other for many generations, and therefore share many similarities. The following information is presented to provide an understanding of Asian-Pacific Americans in order to assist speech-language pathologists and audiologists in providing services to these culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Recommended assessment procedures and intervention strategies are provided.
Attitudes Toward Disability and Treatment Methods
What constitutes a disability depends on the values of the cultural group. In general, Eastern cultures may view a disabling condition as the result of wrongdoing of the individual's ancestors, resulting in guilt and shame. Disabilities may be explained by a variety of spiritual or cultural beliefs, such as an imbalance in inner forces, bad wind, spoiled foods, gods, demons, or spirits, hot or cold forces, or fright. Some believe disability is caused by karma (fate) or a curse. All over the world, people use different methods to treat illnesses and diseases, including consulting with priests, healers, herbalists, Qi-Gong specialists, clansmen, shamans, elders, and physicians. Among the Hmong, for example, surgical intervention is viewed as invasive and harmful.
Childrearing Practices
Childrearing practices and expectations of children vary widely from culture to culture (Westby, 1990; Van Kleeck, 1994). There are differences in how parents respond to their children's language, who interacts with children, and how parents and families encourage children to initiate and continue a verbal interaction. However, socioeconomic and individual differences must always be considered.
Languages
The hundreds of different languages and dialects that are spoken in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands can be classified into five major families: (1) Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian), including Chamorro, Ilocano, and Tagalog; (2) Sino-Tibetan, including Thai, Yao, Mandarin, and Cantonese; (3) Austro-Asiatic, including Khmer, Vietnamese, and Hmong; (4) Papuan, including New Guinean; and (5) Altaic, including Japanese and Korean (Ma, 1985). Additionally, there are 15 major languages in India from four language families, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, and Tibeto-Burman (Shekar and Hegde, 1995).
Cultural Tendencies
Cultural tendencies of Asian-Pacific Americans may be quite different from those of individuals born and raised in a Western culture. Table 1 provides a sampling of these differences. However, caution should be taken not to overgeneralize this information in relation to a particular client or family.
Table 1 : Cultural Differences Between Asian-Pacific Americans and Western Groups
| Eastern Tendencies |
Western Tendencies |
|---|
| A person is not autonomous. |
A person is autonomous. |
| A person is part of society. |
A person is unique and individualistic. |
| A person needs to maintain relationships and have constraints. |
A person makes rational choices. |
| A person is oriented toward harmony. |
A person is active in decision making. |
| A person is a partner in the community where people are mutually responsible for behaviors and consequences. |
A person is responsible for own actions and takes the consequences. |
| A person needs to be humble, improve, and master skills. |
A person is different, unique, and special. |
| A person needs to endure hardships and persevere. |
A person needs to feel good about self. |
| A person needs to self-reflect. |
A person needs to toot own horn. |
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