Naturalistic interventions, which combine behavioral and developmental interventions, are being implemented in a number of educational and clinical settings. As part of the practice in our pediatric clinic, we are treating younger and younger children, targeting early prelinguistic and engagement skills, and focusing on natural, playful exchanges between children and others. This course will describe several empirically validated naturalistic interventions, describe some of their features, and discuss how they are currently being used in our clinical setting.

Attitude is everything! We expect professional and positive attitudes from our supervisees, yet do we hold ourselves to the same standards? Attitude is the foundation for our behavior, but how many of us can describe our attitude beyond surface terms like “positive” or “negative"? What shapes your attitude toward supervising? This course will introduce you to “SWOT,” an efficient tool to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and will reveal how pinpointing these components can help you define your attitude and improve supervisory skills and relationships.

Emergent literacy outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse preschoolers enrolled in a parent shared-reading program are explored. Parental perspectives along with scores on preschool tests are used to establish outcomes over time. Techniques and intervention program materials are discussed that support development in emergent literacy.

This course will focus on strategies for encouraging students to write for genuine reasons. Case examples of students who attend school in self-contained classrooms will be discussed.

Ethical dilemmas are common in any work setting, including the schools, where they are often complicated by the legal, regulatory and policy requirements. This session will review the ASHA Code of Ethics, helping participants explore the four principles and their rules of ethics. These ethical principles and rules will be compared and contrasted with various policy and legal requirements practitioners face in the schools (e.g., special education eligibility requirements, Medicaid billing requirements). After discussion of an ethical decision-making model, it will be applied to a variety of ethical challenges that are common in the schools. Participants will apply the model to various ethical scenarios, looking for positive resolutions for the dilemmas.

Older adults and people with dementia experience a variety of sensory changes that affect their ability to communicate and function independently. Communication and swallowing dysfunction that results from aging or dementia can be exacerbated by environmental barriers such as inadequate lighting, noisy conditions, poor or absent environmental cues, and visual clutter. Speech-language pathologists will learn how to address these environmental barriers as part of a comprehensive treatment plan for older adults with dementia. Examples for research on the physical and social environment will be shared.

This course will review the causes, signs and symptoms, staging, and treatment options for patients with head and neck cancer. Evaluation and evidence based treatment strategies for patients undergoing chemoradiation will be reviewed. Information presented will include methods for management of side effects relating to swallowing. Implementation of a prophylactic swallow therapy program will also be discussed.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) require students to collaborate and engage in conversations with peers, directly linking social competence to academic success. This course will outline the benefits of implementing classroom-based social skills interventions, including a brief discussion highlighting the role social competence plays in accessing the CCSS. In addition to reviewing relevant research supporting this type of service delivery model, specific examples along with important considerations and strategies for successful implementation will be offered.

"Video-based interventions" is a broad term that includes video modeling, video prompting, video self-monitoring, computer-based video instruction and video priming. These interventions rely on procedures related to principles of observational learning and imitation, and the preference of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) for visual processing and visual learning approaches contributes to the success of these interventions with that population. They can be used to target a wide range of outcomes, including increasing social interactions, developing use of language and communication, teaching functional skills, and increasing the consistency of appropriate behaviors as well as reducing maladaptive behaviors.

This course will help speech–language pathologists to refine their goal-writing skills. Quality speech–language IEP goals will be defined as those that teach students the primary skills for classroom success and that are written in a manner that is both measurable and teachable.