Although counseling is an integral component of stuttering therapy, many speech-language pathologists have received little to no formal counseling training. The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of various counseling theories, principles and techniques that can be integrated into stuttering therapy. Attendees will gain a basic understanding of how to practice theory-driven counseling in order to help children and adults who stutter manage negative or undesired life experiences associated with their stuttering. An overview of stuttering treatment for older children and adults will also be provided.

Speech Language Pathologists are often asked to make recommendations for safe swallowing of medications for patients with dysphagia, but have limited information about pharmacodynamics. This course will provide clinicians with the information they need to understand and manage swallowing-related medication effects, identify potential impacts of food and thickener on medication effectiveness, and prevent medication errors in their clients with dysphagia.

When working with young children who stutter, it can be difficult to determine which children need treatment and which children will recover without formal intervention. This course will discuss risk factors for young children who stutter that help determine the treatment plan following a comprehensive evaluation.

As SLPs, we sometimes have students that are not motivated to attend speech therapy, so what do we do? This session will address ideas to motivate the unmotivated, and what to do if motivation cannot be found. What factors do we consider related to dismissal from services, and how do we ethically handle this dilemma?

This course provides a brief overview of narrative and conversational discourse. Emphasis is placed on the importance of discourse in patient-centered care and various approaches to incorporating discourse in aphasia rehabilitation.

The Speech Language Pathologist’s role in palliative care is often misunderstood or unrecognized. This course will demonstrate how the SLP can make valuable contributions to the palliative care process throughout a myriad of settings - including home health, skilled nursing rehab, long-term care, assisted living and acute care - by helping the patient maximize his/her functional abilities to improve quality of life.

This course will provide an overview of considerations for treatment of pediatric and adolescent vocal athletes, including for treatment of common vocal disorders within this population.

A large and complex feeling vocabulary is a prerequisite skill to emotional regulation and successful interpersonal interactions for children and adults. This course will provide information on evidence-based positive behavioral support (PBS) strategies for resolving and preventing challenging behaviors in young children (ages 18 months through 7 years) by recognizing, acknowledging and supporting children’s development of emotional literacy.

This is Part 2 of a two-part series. This course will cover a number of basic treatment techniques for adults with a variety of types of dysarthria.

To treat oral dysphagia, the SLP must select and use appropriate compensatory strategies, including bolus modifications and postural strategies, as well as implement rehabilitative techniques designed to achieve a change in physiologic function. Limited evidence exists for many oral phase rehabilitative techniques; therefore, this course will describe and discuss the related principles of neural plasticity, motor learning and neuromuscular treatments that the SLP must understand in order to effectively treat patients with oral dysphagia.