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Results 1 - 10 of 22
Credit(s): PDHs: 2.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.25
Summary: This trio of SIG 13 articles provides information regarding managing and treating dysphagia with adult patients. First, Abrams and co-authors underscore the importance of hydration and discovered that individuals consuming thickened liquids are often at risk for dehydration. Factors to increase fluid intake through different strategies are discussed. Next, Arguello and Kerr discuss the mechanism of a facial burn injury and how it may cause functional impairments that can be directly impacted through early intervention utilizing speech-language pathology services. Finally, Warner and colleagues completed a pilot study investigating the prevalence of pretreatment dysphagia in oncologic patients and individual factors influencing post treatment dysphagia.
Credit(s): PDHs: 1.0, ASHA CEUs*: 0.1
Summary: Ototoxic medications and chemical agents in the workplace can put individuals' hearing and vestibular health at risk for permanent injury. Proactive ototoxicity management (OtoM) strategies aim to minimize exposure, avoid onset of symptoms, provide ongoing monitoring, and manage auditory and vestibular changes as the clinical needs of the patient evolve. During a 2021 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Special Interest Groups Open House, members of the International Ototoxicity Management Group discussed how best to integrate OtoM into routine clinical practice, what tools to use, and what special considerations need to be understood to best support patients and their families. Here, we have summarized their viewpoints to encourage widespread adoption of improved OtoM services for at-risk individuals. The field of audiology needs to move to a place where we better understand the full extent of ototoxicity and can agree on expanding minimum guidelines that can be implemented more universally to mitigate, detect, and manage the damage from ototoxic exposures. Only recently has our field seen a therapeutic drug that can protect against ototoxicity; however, the population served is restricted only to children receiving treatment for nonmetastatic carcinoma. This is hopefully just the beginning of future therapeutic interventions to come, but, in the meantime, ototoxicity resulting from other medications in different patient populations and chemical agents persists.
Credit(s): PDHs: 2.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.25
Summary: These SIG 13 articles underscore the importance of being up to date of dysphagia intervention as the diagnosis has many complexities in assessment and treatment. Larsen et al. surmise that current characteristics and physiological rationale may overestimate the skills required for gelatin-based desserts and inappropriately classify them as nontransitional foods. Therefore, as with all products, individual gelatin-based desserts should be tested at the time of presentation to the patient. Mancopes et al. discuss the importance of strategies for facilitating safe and functional bottle feeding in children with dysphagia include selecting nipples that reduce flow rate, pacing, altered positioning, and thickening liquid consistencies. Their study aims to determine the impact of slightly thick liquids on swallowing through retrospective review of a convenience sample of clinical videofluoroscopies (VFSS) from 60 bottle-fed children (21 male, mean age 9.9 months) referred due to suspected aspiration. Garand et al. perform a retrospective analysis of persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using modified barium swallow studies and recommend use of functional scales to help evaluate and treat this special population.
Credit(s): PDHs: 1.0, ASHA CEUs*: 0.1
Summary: As a step toward developing an electrophysiologic method for validating the speech feature discrimination benefits of amplification, the article in this SIG 6 activity evaluates the effect of stimulus level and amplification on the acoustic change complex in adults with sensorineural hearing loss.
Credit(s): PDHs: 1.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.15
Summary: In the rising digital era, and especially since the pandemic, implementation of telehealth and provision of auditory rehabilitation (AR) using digital platforms have notably increased. This has changed the outlook of service provision by audiologists and speech-language pathologists alike. Digital platforms have the potential to positively impact AR practices by improving accessibility of rehabilitation services as well as by facilitating a more effective way to share resources with both professionals and end users. This SIG 7 activity includes two articles about the accessibility and effectiveness of digital platforms to provide AR services for both adults and children with hearing difficulties. The first article discusses the differences in the distribution strategy, users’ experience, and satisfaction for two digital platforms (a static website and an active blog) offering AR materials for professionals. Their study concludes that social media–focused active distribution is effective because it results in more total traffic, a greater number of users, more frequent access, and an overall high level of satisfaction with the quality of information and resources. The second article discusses the details of a Zoom-based telepractice initial evaluation protocol used by speech-language pathologists serving children who are hard of hearing and their families. This clinical protocol was designed to synchronously share resources and questionnaires with family members of children who are hard of hearing. Authors suggest that providing AR services through telepractice facilitates high-quality diagnostics and counseling to the same extent as that of in-person diagnostic sessions.
Credit(s): PDHs: 2.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.25
Summary: In this SIG 2 activity, participants explore innovative articles regarding a range of topics in the assessment and treatment of motor speech disorders. The first article describes a case of anarthria in which the speech-language pathologist thoroughly described the patient’s motor speech presentation, thereby contributing to his overall neurologic diagnosis. The second article examines the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a promising method of eliciting behavior change through brain stimulation, on the speech of individuals with Parkinson’s disease. The third article explores the speech and language profiles of children with apraxia of speech as their primary diagnosis, as compared to children with other concomitant diagnoses.
Credit(s): PDHs: 4.0, ASHA CEUs*: 0.4
Summary: These SIG 13 articles provide helpful information in dysphagia practice. Tasia Gibbons, Sophia Werden Abrams, Nazia Mohsin, Rebekah Guastella, Stefania Oppedisano, and Ashwini Namasivayam-MacDonald endeavor to validate a new device to measure lingual strengthening and swallow function. Kelsey Thompson, Cara McComish, and Suzanne Thoyre’s work aims to introduce dynamic systems theory to pediatric feeding clinicians. Margaret Wright and Justin Sleffel demonstrate the importance of a multidisciplinary team approach and the vital role of speech-language pathologists in the evaluation and treatment of dysphagia of unknown etiology. Hollie-Ann Lee Shortland, Gwendalyn Webb, Anne E. Vertigan, and Sally Hewat aim to explore the use of myofunctional devices and how speech-language pathologists gain better understanding of this modality.
Credit(s): PDHs: 4.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.45
Summary: This SIG 2 activity, participants explore aspects of service delivery and advocacy for people with aphasia that are innovative and/or unique. The first article describes the creation of community aphasia groups and includes guidance for creating aphasia-friendly materials for a variety of purposes. The second article describes the challenges of people with aphasia in navigating the justice system and discusses strategies to support their success within that unique environment. The third article describes the nature of verbal short-term memory impairment in people with aphasia, methods of assessment, and potential directions for treatment.
Credit(s): PDHs: 0.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.05
Summary: The article in this SIG 6 activity focuses on the audiologic variations seen among patients undergoing the same type of ototoxic drug treatment (cisplatin). Results show a large amount of audiologic outcome variability among the two patients examined, despite similar demographic factors, drug treatments, and types of cancer. Factors relating to ototoxic susceptibility are discussed, and the importance of otoxicity monitoring programs for early detection of audiologic change is highlighted.
Credit(s): PDHs: 3.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.35
Summary: These four SIG 13 articles provide information for dysphagia practice. They address a unique array of special populations and challenges in patient care involving swallowing and feeding difficulties.
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