Author: Helen Sharp

Activity Description
This course will introduce the core concepts and principles of biomedical ethics and apply these to the practice of speech-language pathology. Case examples will be used to illustrate the application of the principles of ethical decision making across practice settings with practical solutions and using cases to develop preventative steps in various settings.

Learning Outcomes
Participants who successfully complete this course will be able to:

• Discuss an approach to resolving ethical questions in practice with focus on the concept of shared decision-making.
• Define and describe the core principles of bioethics that define and guide clinical practice in any health-related field.
• Define informed consent, informed refusal, clinical decision-making capacity, and legal competence.
• Describe how these principles and issues apply to the practice of speech-language pathology and the role of the speech-language pathologist as a member of the decision-making team, particularly for individuals with commmunication disorders.
• Discuss approaches to decision making when the individual lacks decision-making capacity including the application and limitations of advance directives and decision-making for children.

Click here to take this free course for Speech-Language Pathologists.

Author: Robin Strode Downing, Catherine Chamberlain

Activity Description
This course focuses on identifying and treating communication disorders in children up to the developmental age of five. The course targets the following: establishing foundations for communication-learning skills, receptive language skills, pragmatic and expressive language skills, and speech skills in the young, or developmentally young child.

Learning Outcomes
Participants who successfully complete this course will be able to:

• Describe the foundations for developing communication-learning skills.
• Formulate individualized speech-language therapy goals and objectives for young children or developmentally young children who display with speech-language delays or disorders.
• Identify a variety of strategies for intervention with children with speech-language delays or disorders.

Click here to take this free course for Speech-Language Pathologists.

Author: Phyllis Kupperman

Activity Description
This course describes children who read unexpectedly and precociously within the context of another developmental disorder. The course includes various points of view represented in the literature. Participants will learn intervention tactics that use the precocious reading to scaffold language and social weaknesses.

Learning Outcomes
Participants who successfully complete this course will be able to:

• Understand the complexities involved in defining hyperlexia.
• Identify symptoms and comorbid conditions associated with hyperlexia.
• Evaluate and analyze precocious reading skills in children.
• Devise intervention tactics that use the precocious reading to scaffold weaker areas.
• Understand how to apply intervention tactics with children with hyperlexia on their caseloads.

Click here to take this free course for Speech-Language Pathologists.