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Results 1 - 10 of 17
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: 2.0, ASHA CEUs*: 0.2
Summary: This course focuses on the prevalence and identification of communication disorders in Japan, Guatemala, and global contexts. The first study, conducted in Japan, examines the prediction of special educational needs in children who stutter using a screening test for three neurodevelopmental disorders. The second study explores clinical practices for speech sound disorders in Guatemala, particularly the use of nonspeech oral motor exercises. The third study provides insights into the frequency of aphasia worldwide.
Credit(s): PDHs: 3.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.35
Summary: These three articles center on aspects of audiology and speech-language pathology providers in pediatric hearing loss. First, “eHealth Coaching: Counseling Characteristics of Coaches Used With Parents” centers on identifying clinician communication behaviors and missed opportunities during an eHealth intervention. Themes were identified within each category. Trends included greater use of close-ended questions over open-ended questions, frequent responses to parent emotions, and engagement in a shared process through providing information and exploring progress on parent goals. Missed opportunities occurred within each category. Coaches' communication behaviors demonstrated support for parent learning that was positively received. Joint planning to address parent challenges was a missed opportunity to support parent behavior changes regarding hearing-aid routines. The aim of “Listening and Spoken Language Specialist Auditory–Verbal Certification: Self-Perceived Benefits and Barriers to Inform Change” was to explore the professional's viewpoint on the path to the Listening and Spoken Language Specialist (LSLS) certification. There were 295 participants from different parts of the world: certified LSLSs, mentees pursuing certification, and professionals interested in certification. The study addressed motivation, self-perceived gains, challenges, and barriers in an international cohort. The purpose of the study was to guide future changes within the certification system. Several indicators pointed to the need for more awareness of significant gains LSLS certification can bring to professionals. There is also a need to address, minimize, and overcome perceived barriers in the process. Similarly, research is warranted to explore obtaining LSLS certification outside English-speaking countries and with a larger, more population-based sample. In the closing article, “Comfort Levels of Providers Serving Children Who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing: Discrepancies and Opportunities,” Blaiser and Mahshie discuss that while best practice outlines specific skills and expertise from highly qualified providers, in reality, many lack confidence related to hearing technology and resources related to serving children who are deaf/hard of hearing (DHH). The study surveyed 459 professionals in ASHA serving children who are DHH. The intent was to compare differences in confidence, training, and using resources between providers who have a self-selected interest in working with children who are DHH (membership in SIG 9) and those who serve children who are DHH and are not part of the hearing-related SIG. The results indicate that there is limited provider confidence in working with this population. These conclusions provide graduate training programs opportunities to explore provision of more intensive, comprehensive experience to better serve children who are DHH.
Credit(s): PDHs: 2.0, ASHA CEUs*: 0.2
Summary: This activity includes two articles related to language and literacy intervention for children with hearing loss and deafness. In the first article, Stephanie Mary Raymond and Tring D. Spencer investigate the effect of narrative language intervention on the narrative retelling skills and vocabulary use of children with hearing loss. In the second article, Krystal L. Werfel and Sarah Lawrence describe specific considerations for print-referencing interventions for children with hearing loss along with a case study. The respective authors conclude that print referencing, with specific considerations for children with hearing loss, may be an effective emergent literacy intervention to increase conceptual print knowledge for children preschool-age with hearing loss; and narrative intervention is promising for facilitating language skills improvement for children with hearing loss. Both studies require replication for their findings.
Credit(s): PDHs: 2.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.25
Summary: The three articles in this SIG 9 Perspectives course focus on parent-reported ADHD behaviors, fatigue, and language in children who are deaf and hard of hearing; physical activity in children with hearing loss; and massive open online courses for critical medical education related to children with hearing loss.
Credit(s): PDHs: 1.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.15
Summary: This Perspectives activity highlights two articles with objective measures for both evaluation and treatment of velopharyngeal dysfunction. The first article discusses the palatal closure efficiency (PaCE) index. This is an aerodynamic tool used to estimate the velopharyngeal opening during certain speech contexts. This is done by measuring a percentage of change between nasal and oral cognates of an individual. The second article describes the nasometer in depth, highlighting its use as an evaluation and treatment tool for decreasing hypernasality. It goes into further detail on the differences between hypernasality and measured nasalance, highlighting both strengths and limitations of the nasalance score.
Credit(s): PDHs: 2.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.25
Summary: In an ever-changing global landscape, it is pertinent that audiologists and speech-language pathologists “account for the complexity and diversity of healthcare contexts” (as stated in the second article by Pillay and Pillay). Pressing concerns related to advancing technology (artificial intelligence and machine learning), culturally responsive practice, and rapid climate change are all trending societal conversations. This SIG 17 self-study explores creative solutions to pressing global issues that impact the field of audiology and speech-language pathology. Topics presented include key ethical concerns regarding hearing aids with machine learning, a novel culturally responsive framework for contextualized clinical reasoning, and the impact of climate change on communication and swallowing disorders.
Credit(s): PDHs: 3.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.35
Summary: These SIG 17 Perspectives articles focus on the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on service provision and student training in four global contexts: Cyprus, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Topics include the rise of telesupervision, telepractice in speech-language pathology (SLP), and distance learning in Cyprus during COVID-19; the effectiveness of SLP and related service treatment of patients with COVID-19 in an inpatient rehabilitation setting in the United States; the impact and transformation of an SLP university program in South Africa due to COVD-19; and the perspectives of parents/caregivers on SLP service provision during the pandemic for children born with cleft palates in the United Kingdom.
Credit(s): PDHs: 3.5, ASHA CEUs*: 0.35
Summary: This SIG 5 activity analyzes the relationship between the opioid crisis and cleft lip and palate care across the life span. Two main themes of prevention and treatment after exposure are explained. The articles outline alternatives to opioid use after cleft-related surgeries, impacts on infants and children who were exposed in utero, and velopharyngeal insufficiency treatment after substance abuse.
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.
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