On Thursday and Friday this week, I had to do something I absolutely hate doing….I took two days off from providing therapy. If you have been working with me, you know that I very rarely reschedule or cancel sessions. But last week was a special occasion in the speech and language world — THE ASHA 2018 CONVENTION!
What is ASHA?
ASHA is the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. ASHA provides a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Language Pathology to clinicians, like myself. In addition to regulating graduate student coursework and clinical experiences, ASHA requires certificate holders to maintain their status through continuing education.
ASHA 2018 Convention
The ASHA convention is a yearly, national convention for speech language pathologists and audiologists. Every year a different city hosts the ASHA convention. This year the 18,000 ASHA attendees joined us in my home city of Boston! I don’t think the group of SLPs I met from Florida was happy about our first snow fall on Thursday night, but I certainly enjoyed the beauty of the city covered in a fresh layer of white snow!
But why was it so important for me to attend? As I mentioned earlier, I rarely take time off from my clients. ASHA is an exception, as it provides a unique learning opportunity with hundreds of courses, posters, and opportunities to talk to researchers, clinicians, and vendors. I left ASHA with practical strategies that I could implement Monday morning. If you’re the parent of a current client, ask me about the course I took with your child in mind!
Learning Opportunities
My favorite courses of the weekend included:
- Strategies for teaching flexible thinking
- A new technique for teaching /r/
- Non-standardized evaluation considerations for social competencies
- The impact of trauma and mental health disorders on language development in children
- Nonverbal executive functioning strategies
- Play development
I’m so grateful to the amazing presenters and organizers of ASHA 2018. Thank you for providing the opportunity to learn about the latest evidence based practices in my home town!
