Mining the 2004 ASHA Convention Abstracts
By Judith Maginnis Kuster
The bad news: the 2004 ASHA convention and its wonderful learning opportunities for nearly 12,000 people attendees is over. The good news: the 2004 ASHA convention is NOT completely over, and for the 90,000 ASHA members who were unable to be in Philadelphia there are over 750 Convention handouts freely available online (http://convention.asha.org/handouts.cfm). Even if you attended the convention but missed a particular session, you still have access to its information.
Handouts, posters and PowerPoint presentations are available in various formats - Adobe Acrobat, Word, and PowerPoint. Some larger files are "zipped," (compressed into smaller, more quickly downloaded files). To access the handouts, you may have to download extra (free) software. The following have become pretty standard tools and may already be installed.:
- Acrobat reader is for viewing and printing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
(www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html)
- PowerPoint (PPT) viewer allows you to view PPT presentations.. (http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/Ppview97.aspx)
- UnZip tools (for PCs) are available to expand and decode zip files for PCs (www.pcworld.com/downloads).
- Stuffit Expander expands and decodes zip (PC) files for those with Macintosh computers. (www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html).
The ASHA site includes a chart that estimates download time based on file size and type of internet connection. If you are downloading through a slow modem (phone connection) be sure no one picks up an extension or you'll have to restart what may be a long download time. For example, if you are connecting through a modem that downloads at 56 Kbps (kilobits per second) a file that is labeled as 5MB will take over 12 minutes to download. The same file will take 27 seconds if you have a T1 connection.
As you explore, be sure to scroll down to the last section - the three hour short courses. Many provide treatment ideas including:
- SC06 -- "Phonological Intervention: It's About Time" by Lynn Williams and Ken Bleile features a lengthy handout on approaches to the most common single-sound errors /r/, /s/, and /l/.
- SC11 -- "Interventions to Build Communicative Competence With Individuals Who Require AAC" by Janice Light includes intervention strategies designed to build "knowledge/judgment/skills in linguistic, operational, social, and strategic domains."
- SC14 -- "From Evidence to Practice: Interventions for Children With Autism" by Patricia Prelock "explores evidence-based interventions designed to support the communication and social interaction needs of children with autism spectrum disorder."
- SC17 -- "Articulation Therapy for Children With Hearing Loss" by Elizabeth Wilkes provides "strategies for eliciting accurate phoneme production from children with hearing loss," especially for clients with cochlear implants and digital hearing aids.
- SC18 -- "Clinical, Therapeutic, and Educational Approach for Deaf Children Using Cochlear Implants" by MaryKay Therres and Adeline McClatchie, includes intervention strategies.
- SC24 -- "The Fundamentals of Voice Therapy for the General Practice Clinician" by Marina Gilman features a series of techniques for non-instrumental assessment and treatment of several common voice disorders seen by general practice speech-language pathologists.
- SC25 -- "Building Effective Tools in Stuttering Therapy: Activities That Really "Rock" by Gary Rentschler is filled with interesting treatment ideas.
There is more good news, although it will take more effort to find the treasures buried there. Many handouts from the 2002 and 2003 ASHA convention presentations are also online. For handouts from the 2002 convention, you must join the Community of Science (COS) site (it is free). Go to http://asha.org/about/events/convention/2002/2002online_handouts.htm" and then find the abstract of the session you are interested in. Some of the abstracts have handouts. For example, the Justine Joan Sheppard et al. abstract on "SLPS in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit" has their 80 slide PPT attached and SC18, a "Stuttering Master Class: Advanced Training--School-Age Stuttering Therapy" includes a 52 slide PPT.
The 2003 convention handouts are freely available to anyone, but are listed by session number, not title, so you'll need a Convention book to find what you are looking for in a timely manner. (http://asha.org/about/events/convention/2003/03hndouts1200-etc.htm) I explored a few of the shortcourse handouts and found several gems, including:
- SC4 - "Counseling Skills for Working with Children Who Stutter and Their Families" by Charleen Bloom and Donna Cooperman
- SC6 - an extensive word file of case studies by various presenters on the "Management of Neurogenic Dysphagia"
- SC12 - an Adobe file with information on "NIH Grantsmanship."
- SC20 -- a PPT presentation by Patricia Zebrowski "Intervention Principles for Working with Teenagers Who Stutter."
- SC23 -- a PPT presentation by Barbara Moore-Brown, Roberta Kreb, and Beth Nishida, "How To Avoid Due Process! But If You Must..."
- SC24 -- "Meaning-Based Literacy Intervention: From Planning to Implementation" by Jack Damico et al. provides a39 page handout
- SC25 -- a PPT presentation by Kate DeVore, "Occupational Health: Voice Therapy for Singers and Vocal Performers."
- SC26 -- a PPT presentation by Patricia Chute, "Counseling Issues for Cochlear Implant Recipients and their Families."
After you have finished mining the ASHA convention handouts, another site to explore, the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders, features annual conference proceedings from1997 through 2004, including outlines and entire speeches as well as PPTs presented. (http://www.capcsd.org/proceedings.html).
Judith Kuster is in the department of speech, hearing, and rehabilitation services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Contact her by email at judith.kuster@mnsu.edu. All of Kuster’s Internet columns are on the ASHA Web site in HTML format with active links http://professional.asha.org/news/news.cfm, although URLs change and there is no guarantee that links from previous articles are still functional.
Kuster, JM, Mining The 2004 ASHA Convention Abstracts, ASHA Leader, December 14, 2004, p. 26