Professional Development for SLPs and Educators Like You

This presentation highlights user-friendly methods to access the External Evidence that is crucial to ethical EBP. It includes practical solutions that participants can use immediately, along with a guided walkthrough of selected resources and a brainstorming session so participants can develop an actionable plan to access research relevant to any subject. Applicable to any setting from schools to private practice to hospitals.

The presentation focuses on using curriculum to your advantage as a speech-language pathologist in therapy. Learn ways to work within the exisiting framework to boost generalization of skills and reduce time planning sessions.

This session will provide an introduction to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems. We will bust common AAC myths such as the candidacy model and the expert model. We will discuss who can benefit from AAC and best practices. We will provide definitions for common terms you will hear throughout the conference such as Aided Language Input, and robust AAC. This session will also discuss language variety, bidialectalism, and bilingualism. We will discuss the different forms of AAC and how and why centering and understanding an individual's cultural heritage and language experiences inform our practices. We will identify and discuss barriers to accessing services based on our professional, clinical experiences and the AAC research literature. Lastly, this session will outline and discuss actionable steps that practitioners can immediately utilize to mitigate some of these barriers; discuss solutions such as utilizing a family-centered approach; and how to implement a culturally responsive approach to assessments, device selection, service delivery, and implementation of tools.