ASHA Voices

Speech-language pathologist Hallie Sherman shares three ideas for making sessions with students in grades 4–12 more enjoyable and engaging.

The SLP behind the “Speech Time Fun” blog provides practical examples and describes why she started rethinking her approach to working with older students.

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Learn More:

• Steps to Support Older Students’ Reading Comprehension
• How a Snack Cart Boosts Conversational Skills in Older Students
• Using Play-Based Approaches to Build Language in Older Students

Speech-language pathologist Letizia Hendrickson joins the podcast for a conversation on how SLPs can support executive functioning skills through service delivery.

Hendrickson brings a neuroaffirming approach to her work with clients, which often focuses on ADHD. She shares what she’s learned about helping clients accomplish tasks and meet their goals.

Hendrickson is neurodivergent herself, and she also shares personal reflections on her experiences.

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Learn More:

• ASHA Practice Portal: Executive Function Deficits
• Helping Students With Executive Functions—What Is Our Role as SLPs?
• Relearning Work Skills … at Work After Brain Injury

Support for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from Zanda.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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