ASHA Voices

Hear from Ryan McCreery and John Lee, two researchers working toward intercepting hearing loss early. Both will present on their work at the 2026 ASHA Research Symposium on Hearing, to be held at the ASHA Convention and streamed online.

First, hear McCreery of Boys Town National Research Hospital talk about his research on intervention for children with mild hearing loss. Then, Lee of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals discusses a gene therapy clinical trial that’s seeing participants regain hearing.

Transcript

Learn More:

• ASHA Research Symposium on Hearing
• ASHA Voices: How Do Audiologists Counsel Patients Interested in Gene Therapy?
• ASHA Voices: Researchers Discuss Speech in Noisy Environments, Spatial Awareness, and Bilateral Cochlear Implants

Support for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from AMN Healthcare.

Just ahead of Balance Awareness Week, two University of Michigan researchers discuss their work on assessing infant vestibular systems.

The audiologists address the questions they hope to answer, such as, what is the vestibular system’s critical period of development? They also describe how they developed a new rotational chair—designed specifically for infants—and the interdisciplinary collaboration that made it possible.

Plus, hear an update on ways the researchers are leveraging artificial intelligence to develop more efficient care for patients with dizziness.

Transcript

Learn more:

• Smarter Navigation: How AI Will Rewire Dizziness and Hearing Health Care 
• The Value of Audiologists in the Assessment and Treatment of Balance and Dizziness
• ASHA Voices: Audiology, Aerospace, and an Early-Career Innovator

Support for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from Proliability.

Just ahead of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we’re bringing you a conversation with speech-language pathologist Kristin Szymanek, director of rehabilitation at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Through her “Pediatric Oncology SLP” account on Instagram, Szymanek often shares information on topics like pediatric feeding and palliative care.

In this conversation, Szymanek talks about what interdisciplinary collaboration looks like, how SLPs can assist in navigating transitions, palliative care, working with families of pediatric cancer patients, and more.

Transcript

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: SLPs on Understanding What Matters at the End of Life
• ASHA Voices: Supporting Patients With Head and Neck Cancer in Rural Kentucky
• Helping Children With Cancer Communicate at End of Life
• ASHA Voices: Audiologists Address Ototoxicity in Cancer Care

Although a patient’s communication and swallowing goals may change as they progress through their cancer treatment, today’s podcast guests say the speech-language pathologist’s presence can be one of the most consistent aspects of a patient’s journey.

When SLP Keely Bill identified patients who needed head and neck cancer services in the region where she worked—hours away from the large academic medical centers or university hospitals where the patients originally had surgery or received radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and specialized cancer care—she began taking steps to meet their needs locally.

Bill and her mentor Jen Lutes tell a story of enabling access to care when delivering services to this population in rural northeast Kentucky.

Transcript

Learn More:

• The Value of Prophylactic Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Services in the Treatment of Head and Neck Cancer
• ASHA Practice Portal: Head and Neck Cancer
• Head and Neck Cancer in a Rural U.S. Population: Quality of Life, Coping, Health Care Literacy, and Access to Services
• ASHA Evidence Map: Head and Neck Cancer

Support for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from AMN Healthcare.

As children with congenital heart disease (CHD) begin living longer lives, today’s guests say there is a growing need for speech-language pathologists and interdisciplinary collaborators to work with these patients.

SLP Nashifa Momin and pediatric nurse practitioner Nicole Coolidge join the podcast to discuss their work delivering services to young patients with complex CHD-related needs at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. They share what CHD means for these patients’ lives, and how it connects to development and feeding.

Also, we hear from a caregiver who describes life as the mother of a son with CHD.

Transcript

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: Overcoming Barriers on Families’ Journey From NICU to Home
• Improving Self-Efficacy of Speech-Language Pathologists Who Provide Feeding Interventions for Infants With Congenital Heart Disease Through Targeted Education
• ASHA Voices: How A Spinal Muscular Atrophy Breakthrough Created a Greater Need for SLPs

Speech-language pathologist Lesley Sylvan (Montclair State University) joins the podcast for a conversation on multi-tiered systems of support, or MTSS. It’s a subject she’s passionate about; she has centered her career and research on the educational framework. Sylvan shares how MTSS includes a focus on prevention, proactive instruction, and increasingly targeted support for those students who need it most.

The second edition of Sylvan’s book, “Multi-Tiered Systems of Support: Implementation Tools for Speech-Language Pathologists in Education,” was published in June 2026. In a conversation focusing on accessibility and technology, Sylvan shares what she’s learned from talking to SLPs about the three-tiered framework and what she added to her book to reflect recent changes in perspectives and uses of MTSS.

Learn More:

• Replacing Scarcity With Universal Access in Schools
• A Balancing Act: How School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists Navigate Their Efforts Related to Individual Education Plans and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
• Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RTI)
• Teletherapy and Multi-Tiered System of Support: Synergies and Challenges for School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists

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Speech-language pathologist Amy L. Donaldson returns to the podcast with two fellow members of Portland State University’s Autism and Social Communication Lab, SLP Brandon Eddy and AAC research lead Alyssa Hillary Zisk.

When Donaldson was most recently on the podcast, she spoke about normalizing and destigmatizing AAC use. In this episode, Donaldson, Eddy, and Zisk continue with a conversation on AAC, communication access, and agency.

Guests discuss what it means to use a participatory research model in their lab, and they share updates on the work they are doing in their lab around topics like internal speech experiences, “expensive speech,” and universal access.

Transcript

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: An SLP’s Path to Leading a Neurodiversity-Affirming Clinic
• ASHA Voices: A Neurodivergent SLP on Creating Affirming Spaces for Clients, Colleagues, and Herself
• Autistic Communication: A Survey of School-Based Professionals
•  “Everyone Deserves AAC”: Preliminary Study of the Experiences of Speaking Autistic Adults Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication
• Disability in Speech and Hearing Sciences: Reflections on Representation
• Communication Participation Item Bank — A tool that measures how communication affects participation in everyday life situations.
• National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS) — ASHA’s data collection system that incorporates patient-reported outcomes measures, including the CPIB, to help evaluate functional communication outcomes and participation in real-world settings.

Speech-language pathologist Sandra Hogsed is changing the way Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital is screening for and addressing delirium. In 2020, she saw patients entering the critical access hospital who were developing delirium. Soon after, she dedicated herself to gaining a greater understanding of the condition and how to recognize it.

She shares what delirium looks like in its varying forms, how she is engaging with patients with delirium, and the personal story driving her care.

Learn More:

• Speaking Up for My Father Shaped Me as a Clinician
• Communication Partnering to Support Patients With Dementia
• University Develops a Cognition-Building Workshop for Older Adults
• Communication Access
• Evidence Map on Delirium
• American Delirium Society

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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

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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

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