Just ahead of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minnesota, we discuss hearing health care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD.

Along with competing in events like track and field, swimming, and basketball, many athletes work with volunteers to receive hearing screenings, among other types of health screenings through attending Special Olympics Healthy Athletes®.

Listen to conversations with two audiologists—Denise Cardona Barnes, of Special Olympics International, and Eric McCabe, a volunteer clinical director in Minnesota.

Learn More:

• An Audiologist Brings Healthy Hearing to Special Olympics
• Supporting Care Partners of Adults With Dysphagia and IDD
• Recognizing National Public Health Week: A Collection of Articles, Podcasts, and Resources
• ASHA Voices: Pediatric TBI—Transitioning from Hospital to School
• ASHA Voices: Overcoming Barriers on Families’ Journey From NICU to Home

Transcript

Speech-language pathologist Iván Campos joins the podcast to discuss multilingual assessment and intervention in the schools. Campos brings stories from his time delivering school services to students speaking Mayan languages, and he shares what he learned from that.

In our conversation, he talks about dynamic assessment, collaborating with interpreters, and what the concept of translanguaging means to him professionally and as a multilingual speaker.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: What Might Translanguaging Mean for Multilingual Services?
• Considerations in Utilizing Translanguaging Practices to Meet the Language Needs of Maya Children in U.S. Schools
• ASHA Voices: A Personal and Professional Look at Multilingualism and CSD
• Simple Steps to Support Multilingual Students in Schools

Transcript

As the professional world grows increasingly mobile, hear how the Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact is making it easier for CSD professionals to deliver services across state lines. Guests discuss how the compact works, who may benefit from it, how it creates greater access to services, and the story behind what they did to make it happen.

Learn More:

• The Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact Website
• Update on Interstate Compact Launch (2025)
• ASHA Voices: Student Advocacy and a Win for People Who Stutter

Transcript

From comfort feeding to communication access, two SLPs discuss the important ways speech-language pathologists deliver services as part of palliative care teams.

Sharing personal and professional stories, Brittany Horvath and Marissa James address informed consent, how SLPs can integrate themselves into palliative care teams, and more.

Learn More:

• Dysphagia Management: Strengthening Skills, Overcoming Obstacles
• ASHA Voices: Changes and Trends in Dysphagia Treatment
• AJSLP: Palliative Care Training for Medical Speech-Language Pathologists: A Multiple Baseline Design
• Offering Comfort Feeding in Palliative Care
• Prioritizing Patient Voice and Choice in Dietary Decisions

Transcript

Support for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from Ambu and Zanda.

Speech-language pathologist Claudio Milstein joins the podcast to discuss inducible laryngeal obstruction (ILO), an often misdiagnosed condition that can leave patients feeling shortness of breath.

Milstein breaks down the roles of interprofessional collaboration and differential diagnosis in service delivery. Plus, he shares the story behind the new global community he’s cofounded to bring together experts and create awareness around how to diagnose and treat ILO.

Learn More:

• Practice Portal: Inducible Laryngeal Obstruction
• AJSLP: Inducible Laryngeal Obstruction Differential Diagnosis in Adolescents and Adults: A Tutorial
• Perspectives: Breathing Pattern Disorder: A New Kid on the Block
• ASHA Voices: Preparing the “Vocal Athlete” for Performance
• Global Initiative for Inducible Laryngeal Obstruction (GIILO)

Transcript

Speech-language pathologist Jessica Donaldson explains how the neurodiversity-affirming approach of her multidisciplinary clinic, Autism Specialists, strives to create a sense of belonging, acceptance, and accessibility for autistic clients.

She describes how and why she created a social group for her clients that’s directed by their interests and goals.

Donaldson, the sibling of an autistic adult, also shares how that relationship fuels her work and career.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: ‘This Too Is a Mask’: A Neurodivergent SLP Confronts Autism and Identity
• ASHA Voices: What a CSD Professor Learned About Autistic Masking While Creating Neuro-Affirming Spaces
• ASHA Voices: Preparing Pediatric Audiologists through LEND Programs
• ASHA Voices: Twyla Perryman-Brownlow on Building Skills for Post High School Life
• Online Conference: Autism: Communication and Connection

Transcript

Hear ASHA members discuss how school-based audiologists and speech-language pathologists advocate for themselves, the professions, and the people they serve.

On the podcast, guests share stories of what successful advocacy looks like and give a behind-the-scenes look at the work they do. All three guests are members of the ASHA Teacher Union Member Advisory Group and recently published new resources for audiologists and SLPs interested in engaging with education associations or unions.

Learn More:

• Working for Change: A Guide for Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists in Schools
• Engaging With Teacher Unions and Education Associations
• ASHA Voices: Student Advocacy and a Win for People Who Stutter

Transcript

Support for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from AMBA.

SLP Stephanie Boron joins the podcast for a conversation on how she seeks and creates neurodiversity-affirming spaces through her work as a clinician, clinical instructor, and faculty member at Northwestern University.

Boron describes herself as AuDHD—autistic and ADHD. On the podcast, she shares what neurodiversity-affirming spaces can look like and why they matter to clients.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: What a CSD Professor Learned About Autistic Masking While Creating Neuro-Affirming Spaces
• Positively Disrupting Social Groups: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Glow-Up
• Assistive Technology in Schools

Transcript

For young patients with TBIs and their families, challenges persist after hospital discharge.

On the podcast, guests discuss how they address barriers associated with this transition. We’ll hear perspectives from both sides of that transition: Taryn Townsend at Texas Children’s Hospital, and Melaney Grenz, who worked for nearly three decades in the schools and as part of the Oregon TBI team. Grenz joins this conversation from the Center on Brain Injury Research and Training—or CBIRT—which is part of the University of Oregon.

Townsend and Grenz discuss how clinicians may engage with schools, the role of brain injury management teams, and common questions from parents.

Learn More:

• How Social Determinants of Health Shape TBI Recovery in Children
• ASHA Voices: Supporting Families of Children With Disorders of Consciousness
• ASHA Voices: Overcoming Barriers on Families’ Journey From NICU to Home
• ASHA Practice Portal: Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury
• CBIRT: Return to School

Three SLPs discuss multilingual service delivery in light of “translanguaging,” a concept that’s been gaining attention recently. “Translanguaging” refers to the way a speaker, often multilingual, may incorporate the “entirety of their linguistic repertoire,” possibly pulling from two or more named languages.

Guests share what translanguaging sounds like, how it differs from code-switching, and what it may mean for service delivery. Through personal stories, they highlight how their own linguistic backgrounds relate to the subject.

Learn More:

• Multilingual Service Provider Resource Collection
• Webinar: Translanguaging for Pediatric SLPs: Service Delivery With Multilingual Children
• LSHSS: Functional Language Proficiency in Bilingual Children: A Conceptual Framework, Culturally Responsive Practice, and Measurement Approach
• ASHA Practice Portal: Multilingual Service Delivery in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology

Transcript