ASHA Convention 2024 – Our Picks on What to See

The ASHA Convention 2024 is right around the corner and lots of people (us included) are really looking forward to reconnecting with many people we haven’t seen in person since before the pandemic, learning tons, and finding out what is in the future for speech language pathology as the conference is focusing on innovation. Ellen Kester and I are excited to present on Saturday at 1PM and want to personally invite anyone who is going to come find us to say hi! Meeting people from SLP Impact and from the website is one of our favorite parts of going to the ASHA conference. Here’s why we are excited about this year including presentations we are looking forward to and information on our own.

Key Note Speaker – Sekou Andrews

Let’s start with the key note speaker! We have to give ASHA a lot of credit for choosing probably the best example of innovation as the key note speaker. Sekou Andrews is a once school teacher turned 2-time national poetry slam champion and entrepreneur. Spoken word and slam poetry is not only some of the most innovative art of our time, but he teamed up with The String Theory to create some really phenomenal music. Sekou Andrews has been described as creating “a cutting-edge category of speaking that combines strategic storytelling, inspirational speaking, and spoken word poetry to give a powerful voice to messages and missions of organizations around the world.” Now that’s a way to kick off a convention!

Better Online Access to Presentations and Events

I am not ready to give ASHA an A+ in the system they use to organize the convention but this year we again see some substantial improvements. It’s been my experience in the past that I felt like I really had to dig to find what I was looking for rather than being able to peruse based on the times I have available.

This year, the filters for the ASHA conference can be segmented by audience, focus, time, and topic area, as well as some other things like format that might be of use.

And, we can’t forget that we need CEUs in specific areas such as Ethics, Supervision, and DEI which can also be found by grouping those things together.

Secondly, I found myself avoiding the floor with all of the booths unless I had a big chunk of time but now there is an interactive map that you can use to scroll over the books to see who is where. This is especially helpful if you have friends or old colleagues who are working on the floor and you are trying to catch up with them.

Quick Ways to Interact with Like-Minded SLPs

The ASHA Planning Committee has put together a nice series of courses on specific tops and based on the theme for this year. They created a series of “Changemaker Sessions.” When we all submitted to present this year, they asked specific questions about whether your topic was new and innovative. From that pool, they identified specific courses that they considered innovative and grouped those together.

Click here and then scroll down to Changemaker Sessions and Meritorious Posters.

Special Interest Group Open Houses and Networking Meetings

Ever been interested in joining a SIG, finding out who is it, or what they do? Each Special Interest Group has put together an Open House and Networking Meeting which seems like good introduction to an group prior to committing to pay to join.

Each SIG has organized their own schedule on a separate ASHA page.

What am I Most Looking Forward to for this ASHA Convention?

There are a handful of sessions I would like to shine the light on because they are the culmination of several years of work. Plenty of presentations have a focus on innovation but the question is, which ideas will move the field forward or take a disorder or discipline in a completely new direction?

Additionally, I am excited that the presentation is in Boston with the oh-so-incredible Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Last time ASHA was in Boston, it coincided with the MFALateNights where the museum is open from 8PM-1AM. It is often the 3^rd Friday of the month so hopefully we are in luck again!

Here are presentations that we are looking forward to each day:

Children’s Speech Development in 70+ Languages and Dialects

Location: Westin/Grand Ballroom A (Concourse)

Date: Thursday, Nov 16 5:30 PM

Format: 1-Hour Seminar (In-Person)

From birth, children learn to communicate in their local languages and dialects. This seminar will provide a cross-linguistic account of multilingual and monolingual children’s speech development. The seminar will begin with an overview of children’s speech development in over 70 languages and dialects across the world. Next international experts will describe speech development in languages such as Afrikaans, English, French, Greek, Hungarian, Jamaican Creole, Spanish, and Slovakian. First, each presenter will describe consonants, vowels, tones, prosody and word shapes. Next, they will present research evidence about children’s speech development. Finally, authors will review assessments, interventions, and resources that are available in each language. This information can be applied by speech-language pathologists to support children’s speech development.

Rethinking Narrative Retells: A Multicultural Approach to Supporting Narrative Skills

Location: Omni/Ensemble Ballroom AB (Lvl 2)

Date: Friday, Nov 17 2:30 PM

Duration: 1 hour

Format: 1-Hour Seminar (In-Person)

SLPs frequently use narrative retells in evaluation and intervention because they are easy to control and measure. This practice may result in biased assessment and treatment. In addition, learning one narrative structure as the “correct” structure potentially undermines identity formation. In this session, participants will learn about the empowering and long-term academic benefits of personal narrative generation and how to provide inclusive opportunities for all children to acquire narrative skills. Participants will learn that the highly sequential narrative structure (character/setting, problem, internal response, actions, and resolution) is based on the European North American model and discounts cultural variations. Practicing SLPs will leave with practical strategies for narrative assessment, goal writing, and intervention they can apply immediately.

Stuttering as Verbal Diversity: Is it Really Okay to Stutter?

Location: CC/206AB (Lvl 2)

Date: Saturday, Nov 18 2:30 PM

Format: 1-Hour Seminar (In-Person)

In the era of neurodiversity, many SLPs have expressed confusion regarding their roles in working with those who stutter. Two stuttering experts – one SLP and one life-long person who stutters – join forces to discuss how they perceive the current climate, how it relates to what has been transpiring over decades, and how SLPs can provide effective stuttering therapy that supports the personal journeys of each person who stutters.

Mastering the Art of Non-Standardized Language Assessments—Effective Tools for Diverse Caseloads – Bilinguistics

Location: Omni/Momentum BC (Lvl 5)

Date: Saturday, Nov 18 1:00 PM

Format: 1-Hour Seminar (In-Person)

And yes, we are also excited to present. We have put together a working format of our dynamic assessment materials that we use to both evaluate and move students through their goals swiftly. Part of this presentation we are introducing the new work that we have been doing behind the scenes this year including a World Language Library, Parent Questionnaires in multiple languages, and software to write reports faster and more accurately.

Come find us!  We’ll see you there.

Scott