For critically ill patients, what are some practical ways speech-language pathologists can address barriers to communication?

Today on the podcast, we talk effective communication between critically ill patients and providers in the ICU, emphasizing the role of augmentative and alternative communication.

Guests include speech-language pathologist Tami Altschuler and nursing professor Mary Beth Happ, who describe practical ways SLPs and others working in the ICU can collaborate to create greater access to communication. Both share moving stories that bring this work to life.

Plus, SLP Chris Ross shares her personal experience of being unable to communicate during a stay in the ICU.

Learn More:

• ASHA: Communication Access
• SPEACS-2 Communication Training Program
• ASHA Voices: Creating ‘Ramps’ to Communication Access in Health Care
• Communication Access in Health Services Special Collection
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication

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As an audiologist, what do you say when a patient or client asks to receive gene therapy? The headlines are certainly grabbing public interest, but what does it mean for your practice?

Clinical trials and media coverage are driving interest in this novel approach to hearing loss intervention. As our guests share, so far only one gene has received clinical trials. But patients and their families may seek this treatment or ask you questions about what it means for them.

To provide background and perspective, we’ll hear from two people well versed in the world of gene therapy for hearing loss: Ryan McCreery of Boys Town National Research Hospital and Jenna Devare of University of Michigan Medical School.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: A Promising Outlook for Gene Therapy and Hearing Loss
• First Deaf Gene Therapy Recipient in U.S. Gains Hearing
• ASHA Voices: The Limits of Our Genes
• ASHA Voices: Audiologists Address Ototoxicity in Cancer Care

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When your career or your current role leaves you seeking a new challenge and something fresh, how do you make a change?

Speech-language pathologist Rinki Varindani Desai joins the podcast for a conversation about nontraditional and nonclinical roles open to SLPs. And she shares how SLPs can use their skills and strengths to find new professional opportunities.

Varindani Desai’s background is in medical speech-language pathology. She has expanded her work into nontraditional spaces, such as digital consulting. She shares her personal story and the steps other SLPs can consider if they want to make a transition.

Also, hear from two other SLPs—Mai Ling Chan and Katie Seaver—who reimagined their careers. They share what they’ve learned through the process.

Learn More:

• ASHA Career Portal
• Career Transitions Mentorship Program (CTMP)
• AI, Digital Health, and the Future-Ready SLP
• ASHA Convention: Beyond the Bedside: Exploring Nonclinical Career Pathways for SLPs

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From patient decision-making to diet modification to interdisciplinary collaboration, guests share their experience and the trends they’re seeing shape and change dysphagia treatment.

Featuring three SLPs from ASHA’s Online Conference, “Dysphagia Management: Strengthening Skills, Overcoming Obstacles,” this panel discussion addresses shifting practices related to SLPs’ role in making dietary recommendations.

What do these changes mean for your service delivery? And most importantly, how do you communicate these changes to your patients and interdisciplinary collaborators?

Learn More:

• ASHA Online Conference: Dysphagia Management: Strengthening Skills, Overcoming Obstacles
• ASHA Voices: Avoiding Confusion in Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing
• ASHA Voices: SLPs Make the Case for a Fearless Approach to Dysphagia Treatment
• ASHA Voices: The Critical but Unseen Social Determinants of Health

Patients receiving burn care have dynamic and complex needs, and SLPs can provide key communication and swallowing support during the recovery process.

Speech-language pathologist Tiffany Mohr of Orlando Regional Medical Center joins the podcast to discuss SLPs' growing role in burn care and improved patient outcomes.

Mohr is one of the first two SLPs to join the American Burn Association’s Rehabilitation Committee. She shares what she’s learned over nearly a decade of treating patients with burns.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: The Role of Two SLPs Following a Unique Face-Transplant Surgery
• ASHA Voices: Dysphagia, Communication, and the Challenges of Life in the ICU
• ASHA Voices: Creating ‘Ramps’ to Communication Access in Health Care

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What information do we receive from the sound around us? Hear thoughts from Matt Goupell (University of Maryland) and Brian Monson (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), who join the podcast to discuss their research, along with findings on speech in noisy environments and spatial awareness.

Goupell and Monson are presenting at the 2025 ASHA Research Symposium on Hearing at the ASHA Convention. As part of ASHA Voices’ annual coverage of that symposium, they join the podcast to discuss their presentations and research.

First, Monson shares what we can learn from extended high frequencies—those frequencies higher than 8,000 Hz. He shares thoughts on why these quieter frequencies may be the first to go. Then, Goupell tells us what bilateral cochlear implants are doing well, and how he hopes to see them improve in the future.

Learn More:

• Research Symposium on Hearing
• ASHA Voices: A Promising Outlook for Gene Therapy and Hearing Loss
• ASHA Voices: The Community Link to Hearing Care Access

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Guests on this podcast episode characterize work with pediatric disorders of consciousness as a "marathon, not a sprint."

Through long stretches of rehabilitation, speech-language pathologists work closely with these young patients’ families, who may be in a process of grieving.

Two SLPs from a children’s hospital in Texas discuss counseling families in this second of two episodes exploring disorders of consciousness. They tell us about collaborating with families during assessment and treatment, and how they work with these families in emotionally difficult moments.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: Looking for Subtleties While Treating Disorders of Consciousness
• ASHA Voices: The Difference Patient Counseling Makes
• ASHA Practice Portal: Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

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Disorders of consciousness, often associated with brain injuries, vary in severity and can include patients who are unresponsive or experiencing confusion. What comes next for these patients and their families and care partners can be a long, emotionally difficult journey through uncertainty.

SLP Emily Silverberg of Spaulding Rehabilitation shares her insights from treating patients all along the disorders of consciousness spectrum. She explains how SLPs look for subtle signs of responsiveness. And she shares one unusual story that demonstrates the role families and care partners can play in this treatment.

Learn More:

• ASHA Evidence Map: Disorders of Consciousness
• ASHA Voices: Isolation, Frustration, and What Follows a Brain Injury
• How TBI Presents Differently in Children Under Age 4

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Two SLPs share how they arrived where they are today and what they learned along the way.

First, Kelly Peña (Rutgers University/former president of ASHA’s Hispanic Caucus) shares a story of the people who brought her into the profession and what she’s passing on to the next generation of multilingual practitioners.

Later in the episode, hear from Anusha Sundarrajan (San Francisco State University/president of the South Asian Caucus of ASHA). When her colleague suggested Anusha open a gender-affirming voice clinic, it sparked a change that’s been a part of Anusha’s career for more than half a decade.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: Career Origin Stories – Multilingual Service Providers
• ASHA Voices: What Role Can Supervisors Play in Addressing Microaggressions?
• ASHA Voices: Three SLPs Step Off the Beaten Career Path into New Ventures

In our second episode recognizing Disability Pride Month and the 35th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Eileen Nordmeyer shares a personal story about the influence of disability on her career.

Nordmeyer has worked in many different settings and practiced as a speech-language pathologist for more than 30 years. When her son was born with a genetic disorder, it changed the way she viewed service delivery. She shares her insights.

Learn More:

• ASHA Voices: Recognizing ADA at 35 With Personal Stories of Disability Advocacy
• Speech-Language Pathology in Schools: Medical, Educational, or Both?
• Establishing Rapport With Clients … With a Disability

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