NCTSN Brief Addresses Developing Materials for Spanish Speaking Populations

If you attended this year’s All-Network Meeting, you could not fail to see that making high-quality materials on child traumatic stress accessible to Spanish speakers is a vital issue.

At the Culture Consortium’s session, Luis Flores, of Serving Children and Adolescents in Need (SCAN), guided participants through the issues to consider when translating documents into Spanish. The latest Culture and Trauma Brief - Translation of English Materials to Spanish - expands on the points he made during the presentation. A key theme is respect: for community input, for how American Spanish speakers use the language, and for the need for continuous quality improvement. Steps such as the use of a translation advisory committee, two-way translations, and consideration of the varieties of Spanish spoken across the country are crucial to the development of high-quality materials.

The following resources also offer guidance in the selection, translation and preparation of linguistically-competent materials:

• Developing Materials: Getting Translations, Washington State Department of Health
• A Guide to Choosing and Adapting Culturally and Linguistically Competent Health Promotion Materials, National Center for Cultural Competence
• Bridging the Communication Gap: Provider to Patient Written Communication, Hablamos Juntos
• Developing, Translating and Reviewing Spanish Materials: Recommended Standards for State and Local Agencies, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
• The Translation Process: Expanding the Utility and Validity of the Project Protocol The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods