Tatiana Cooke Munkes
Multilingual Speech Language Therapist
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
-Nelson Mandela
Tatiana Cooke Munkes
Hi! I am a multilingual speech language therapist recognized by the authorities of the health department of the state of Hamburg, Germany. I have many years of working experience in Brazil, England, Switzerland, United States and Germany. Thanks to this international experience, I speak three languages fluently: German, Portuguese and English, which I integrate into my work with bilingual and multilingual families. I offer assessment, therapy and counseling in these three languages.
I have been working with languages for over 25 years, as a foreign language teacher, psychopedagogist and as speech language therapist.
I have two children who I have been raising together with my husband in three languages over the last 20 years. The opportunity to have lived in different countries expanded our understanding of the real meaning of the social-cultural aspects of integration and communication.
+49 1514 6538 687
Welcome
Your child is not communicating clearly. You feel insecure because you don't know if your child has any speech or language delay; whether or not his/her mistakes are normal for his/her age. Does he/she need speech language therapy?
Doubts and insecurities regarding the development of speech and language end up generating anxieties that are passed on to your child when you are taking care of him, or even when you are playing with him. Parents and children feel when communication is not done clearly, when understanding does not occur easily. The frustration that occurs during poor communication ends up reflecting negatively on your child's speech and language development.
But how do you know if your child really needs speech therapy? The ideal would be to do a speech-language pathology evaluation. However, here in Germany, some things make even our first contact difficult, such as the need for a medical prescription. (see information in the text “First Speech Therapy Session”).
Until you get a medical evaluation for your child, you might want to try filling out a “Checklist For Parents” that I've organized in order to reduce a little your anxieties. Through this Checklist and the information about speech therapy therapies here on the site, you will have information about the main speech and language disorders in children. You will feel more secure about your decision to seek speech therapy intervention.
If you mark with a “YES” in any of the questions or more questions, this will indicate that your child will need to undergo a speech-language evaluation. In this case, please contact me to schedule a session.
Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Tatiana Cooke Munkes
Bilingual or Multilingual Therapy
The main goal of bilingual and multilingual therapy is to welcome the patient through his or her mother tongue. The therapist & patient bond is established when the patient feels understood in what he says, thinks and feels. Every patient who feels more secure and welcomed consequently presents a better motivation, which directly impacts his therapeutic prognosis. This is the greatest advantage or the "Golden Key" of bilingual or multilingual therapy. Furthermore, in bilingual or multilingual speech therapy, a more accurate and coherent observation and evaluation of the whole bilingual and multilingual development is allowed, as well as the patient's speech and language disorders of the languages he or she speaks. In this type of therapy it will be observed which language the patient prefers to communicate in; which language is dominant; which language suffers the most; and which language is used at home, at school and in the social environment. Bilingual and multilingual therapy also offers a unique therapy plan that respects the socio-cultural and intercultural aspects of each patient. In my therapy I will also use international speech-language methods together with my knowledge of clinical psychopedagogy.
Multilingualism
Workshop & Counseling
The experience of raising my children in three languages together with my husband has been a very exciting and rewarding one. There were many times during the development of our children, when we felt insecure and had questions for instance about their multilingual speech-language development and their reading and writing skills in each of the languages. It has not been easy for us parents to raise our children in three languages, however we have always been aware that TWO LANGUAGES ARE BETTER THAN ONE!
So, if you are reading this text right now and also have some questions about the challenges of bilingual/multilingual education of your child, your students or want to support multilingualism I can offer you and your family an individual counseling or the chance to attend my workshop.
My goal during my workshop or individual counseling is to answer as a “multilingual mother” and speech-language pathologist, the most frequently asked questions, such as:
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Will my child be overwhelmed with too many languages?
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Should I give up speaking my mother tongue to support the local language?
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Why doesn’t my child want to speak his/her mother language? Is this just a phase?
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Is it normal that my child mixes different languages in one sentence?
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Could my child have difficulties in school because of multilingualism?
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How do I stimulate the language(s) development/progress effectively?
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What is considered normal and what is a disability in the language process?
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To obtain more information about my workshop and/or individual counseling, don’t hesitate to contact me.
