More Than Just Bites: Supporting Connection, Development, and Joy in Feeding Therapy

Feeding is more than eating—it’s a developmental and relational experience rooted in connection, safety, and joy. For many children, especially those who are dysregulated, feeding is not the body’s top priority. This session explores a developmental, relationship-based model of pediatric feeding therapy that prioritizes regulation, engagement, and authentic connection before introducing food. Using a child-led, neurodiversity-affirming lens, we will examine how sensory strategies, caregiver collaboration, and joyful interaction support meaningful mealtime experiences. Attendees will leave with practical, relationship-centered strategies to build trust, promote participation, and support developmentally appropriate feeding for children and their families.

Medical mistrust is defined as a lack of trust in medical organizations, affecting healthcare, education, and care management across the U.S. (Jaiswal & Halkitis, 2019). In this dynamic and interactive session, participants will explore practical strategies to build trust with diverse populations through cultural humility, patient-centered care, and inclusive communication. Learn how shifting perspectives and engaging with patients' lived experiences can strengthen relationships and improve outcomes in healthcare settings.

My Future Self: Improving Executive Function with the application of mental time travel

Actualizing one’s future-aspirations entails mental time-travel followed by goal-directed and future-focused actions ~ all made possible by strong Executive Function. Since the future is uncertain and thinking about the future evokes feelings of uncertainty, children may be stuck in the here and now. Far too often, current learning priorities keep children and young-adults focused on daily work, grades, and performance, creating a disconnect between the habit mastery and long-term needs of the future-self. This session will present the nature of future-self as it relates to goal attainment and goal-directed persistence and effective and evidence-based strategies that improve future-oriented reasoning and emotional regulation to empower the future-self.

Elevating Your Elicitation Skills: When Repeat-After-Me Isn't Working

Accurate elicitation of target sounds can often be the most challenging aspect of intervention for children with speech sound disorders. This course will discuss and demonstrate numerous multi-sensory cueing strategies that can benefit children with articulation, phonological, and motor-based speech disorders. Case examples and videos of actual therapy sessions will be reviewed to help explain and describe specific elicitation strategies.

Writing your first AAC evaluation report for device funding can be an overwhelming task. In this session, we will discuss how our clinic went from never completing AAC evaluations to completing 23 in one year. You will walk away from this session with a greater understanding of insurance requirements for receiving funding for AAC devices, as well as an easy-to-follow outline for completing this process from start to finish. Learn how to serve this population competently and confidently.

Supporting Cognitive and Executive Function Recovery in Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury: From Evaluation to Discharge

Adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often present with complex cognitive-communication and executive function deficits that require comprehensive, individualized care across the continuum of care. This session will provide an evidence-based framework for evaluating and treating adults with TBI. This session will emphasize functional, person-centered intervention and discharge planning. Participants will learn practical strategies to integrate assessment results into meaningful treatment goals, address real-world cognitive and executive function challenges, and support successful transitions to community and daily life settings.

Each person’s cochlea is unique, that’s why MED-EL offers various electrode lengths for the best individual fit for each CI recipient. We have the unique tools to measure each cochlea so the right electrode can be chosen for that patient. In addition, we’ve taken the next step forward by using imaging to visualize where the electrode sits after implantation within a patient’s cochlea. For the first time, audiologists are now able to best match the frequency settings to the natural pitch information unique to each patient’s ear. What does this mean for you and your patients? More informed programming with one-click activation in the software and enhanced sound quality for your recipients!

Advancing Bone-Anchored Hearing: A Look at Ponto and Sentio Systems

This course provides an in-depth comparison of the Ponto and Sentio bone-anchored hearing systems, highlighting their technological advancements, clinical applications, and surgical considerations. Attendees will explore key features of both systems, including patient benefits, signal processing strategies, and surgical flexibility.

The Cleft Update: Cultivating Best Practices

The UAB Cleft and Craniofacial Center at Children’s of Alabama is committed to providing the highest standard of interdisciplinary cleft and craniofacial care as an American Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Association Approved Team. Being approved by the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association (ACPA) means we meet rigorous standards to ensure our patients receive expert, coordinated, and compassionate treatment at every stage of their journey. Learners will enhance their knowledge of preoperative planning, postoperative care, and the critical role of interdisciplinary collaboration in cleft care. Join pediatrician, Dr. Cassi Smola and speech language pathologist and program coordinator, Meghan Brown for “The Cleft Update.”

AI in Communication Sciences and Disorders: Clinical Work, Supervision, Teaching, and Ethical Considerations

This dynamic session will explore the burgeoning role of artificial intelligence (AI) across the field of communication sciences and disorders. Recognizing the increasing impact of AI on clinical practice, supervision, and education in both speech-language pathology and audiology, practical AI applications designed to enhance clinical decision-making, streamline workflows, and enrich the learning experiences of future professionals will be discussed. This session will provide actionable insights and readily applicable strategies relevant to clinicians and educators alike. We will also navigate the critical ethical considerations inherent in utilizing AI with clients and in guiding student learning, ensuring responsible and effective implementation across all areas of communication sciences and disorders. Given the presentation timeframe, the focus will be on high-impact applications and overarching principles applicable to a broad CSD audience.

Cultivating Environments for Better Engagement: Identifying Sensory Clues

This session will focus on helping learners recognize sensory factors impacting child engagement, attention and self-regulation. We will discuss evidence based, sensory-focused strategies that facilitate attention and engagement in children impacted by sensory differences. We will explore practical ways to incorporate needed sensory input into daily routines such as play and will identify effective strategies for assisting children in times of dysregulation.

ALSDE Updates

Stay ahead of the curve with the most up-to-date insights on state and federal policies, guidance, and best practices shaping the field of speech-language pathology in Alabama’s public schools. This session will empower school-based SLPs with the tools and knowledge needed to navigate compliance confidently, write effective IEPs, and support student progress.

Cultivating People, Policies, and Purpose

Audiologists and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often encounter complex ethical challenges in their professional practice. This session explores common ethical dilemmas faced by these professionals and emphasizes the importance of understanding relevant policies, procedures, and ethical principles. Through an interactive panel discussion, participants will engage with real-world scenarios, critically examine decision-making processes, and identify practical strategies to navigate ethical challenges effectively. Attendees will also learn about support resources available to assist them in upholding ethical standards while delivering quality care to students, clients, and patients.

APT AT: Accessing Potential Through Assistive Technology

Discover how APT AT (Accessing Potential through Assistive Technology)—Alabama’s Assistive Technology Act Program—is helping individuals with disabilities thrive in communication, education, work, and daily life. Designed with speech-language pathologists in mind, this session will highlight how assistive technology (AT), including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools, can support clients across the lifespan. Participants will explore how APT AT provides access to device demonstrations, short-term loans, and training opportunities to help SLPs make informed decisions about AAC and other communication supports. Learn how to connect clients and families with the right tools, reduce barriers to access, and partner with APT AT to improve outcomes in both clinical and educational settings. Whether you work in schools, healthcare, or private practice, this session will equip you with practical strategies to integrate AT into your service delivery and better advocate for the individuals you serve.

Beyond Planners and Lists: Clinical Strategies to Address Executive Function Deficits in Young Adults with ADD/ADHD and Acquired Neurological Disorders

Executive function challenges in young adults with ADD/ADHD and acquired neurological disorders can significantly impact academic performance and daily life—especially during the transition to higher education or independent living. This session will highlight clinical approaches for supporting executive function skills in this population. Attendees will explore intervention strategies designed to build executive function skills beyond organization and planning. Emphasis will be placed on practical, functional methods that clinicians can apply across academic and community contexts to foster independence and long-term success.

This session highlights Alabama’s Vocational Rehabilitation efforts, focusing on supporting individuals who face significant barriers to employment, including those with varying degrees of hearing loss. We will share our pathway from initial support to sustained success, with a special emphasis on our unique audiology program. Attendees will learn how integrated services, innovative assessment, and collaborative partnerships empower participants to regain independence, secure meaningful employment, and thrive in the workforce. The presentation will highlight our Deaf and Hard of Hearing program and show how we assist our clients in gaining and maintaining employment through a variety of measures but especially hearing aids, and other assistive technologies. You’ll learn how to make effective referrals to our program and explore opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration across the state of Alabama.

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are driving significant change across healthcare, compelling professionals to adapt their practices. This session will focus primarily on the evolving role of AI in speech-language pathology, highlighting its impact on clinical workflows, diagnostic tools, and therapeutic interventions. Information will be provided on how to navigate ethical use of AI, to enhance clinician workloads through AI, and to improve patient care.

Behind Closed Doors: The Hidden Crisis of Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is a growing issue that is often overlooked or missed in healthcare and clinical practice. This session will help speech-language pathologists learn how to recognize red flags/signs of elder abuse, understand their ethical and legal responsibilities, and advocate for the safety and well-being of older adults. The session will provide attendees with the knowledge and tools to identify abuse, understand the different forms of abuse, engage in interdisciplinary collaboration and decision making, and ways in which to support these elders.

Parent Perceptions of Early Intervention for Minimally Speaking Autistic Children

This presentation explores parents' perceptions of early intervention for minimally speaking autistic children. While early intervention is widely recognized as essential for supporting language development, little is known about how parents view these services. Findings highlight parents’ reports of both empowerment and emotional challenges, emphasizing the importance of strong collaboration between families and clinicians. Themes include perceived effectiveness, parental stress, and the need for continued support beyond therapy sessions. Results suggest that incorporating parent perspectives can improve family-centered care and enhance the long-term impact of early intervention.

Singing-Language Pathologist: Incorporating Singing into your Sessions

The intersections of singing and speech-language pathology are endless. Music can serve as a way to communicate, connect people, learn languages, increase breath support for speech, and so much more. This session will introduce ways to incorporate singing into individual and group sessions as a way to reach goals with creativity, efficiency, and fun. Information will be provided on the field of music therapy and evidenced-based health benefits of music and singing. Singing in speech therapy is a fantastic way to improve engagement, connect with patients, and grow clinical skills.

Within the realm of stuttering, there is insufficient research completed on adults who stutter. However, adults are able to better articulate factors that affect their severity, than children who stutter. In this presentation, research will be presented attempting to answer the question; “Does sleep affect severity of stuttering?”

Stuttering therapy today is moving away from fluency-based approaches and toward stutter-affirming therapy. This session is designed to help SLPs make the shift with practical therapy ideas that you can start using right away. Participants will learn to address the affective, behavioral, cognitive, and physical aspects of stuttering through a holistic lens. We’ll also discuss therapy goals that support ease of communication, participation and educational or career attainment.

Facilitated Communication From an AAC User's Perspective

This session will examine the problems with facilitated communication (FC) and its variants, such as Spelling to Communicate (S2C) and Rapid Prompting Method (RPM). Using video examples and research, we will review how FC was discredited in the 1990s after evidence showed that messages were generated by facilitators, not AAC users. Despite this, FC and related methods continue to be used, leading to prompt dependency and lost opportunities for evidence-based AAC. ASHA and other organizations have issued strong position statements against FC, emphasizing that it denies nonspeaking individuals the right to independent communication.

Syllables: Types, Division, and Everything in Between

This 90-minute beginner-friendly session provides a clear, practical roadmap for teaching syllable types, syllable division patterns, and their integration with morphology. Participants will learn the six syllable types and the six main syllable division strategies, explore how morphology (prefixes, suffixes, and base words) impacts decoding and meaning, and leave with ready-to-use activities for intervention and classroom practice. With a focus on struggling readers and students with dyslexia or language-based learning differences, this session blends research-based frameworks with hands-on tools like color-coding, manipulatives, and student-friendly routines. The goal: help learners move beyond “guess and go” to structured, strategic reading and spelling.

Assessment and Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech- Part 1

Did you know that some characteristics of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) are discriminative, helping differentiate CAS from non-motor speech sound disorders, while still overlapping with childhood dysarthria? This makes it critical for clinicians to understand both the overlaps and the key features that define CAS. In this course, we will examine the definition and hallmark characteristics of CAS and compare them with overlapping features seen in other pediatric motor speech disorders. You will learn how to apply a dynamic motor speech assessment to consistently identify patterns in a child’s speech and determine whether CAS is present. Through clinical examples and practical strategies, participants will gain confidence in conducting informal assessments, distinguishing CAS from other speech disorders, and laying the foundation for an appropriate, evidence-based therapy approach. By the end of the session, clinicians will be equipped to identify CAS accurately and prepare children for meaningful progress in treatment.

DIRFloortime®, also known as DIR®, is an evidence-based approach to promoting development and communication for children with neurodevelopmental differences including autism and is one of the most utilized approaches by speech and language therapists. This session will provide a fun introduction to DIRFloortime with video examples and practical steps you can use tomorrow.

This session provides an overview of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), highlighting the speech-language pathologist’s role in diagnosis, assessment, and intervention. Participants will review current evidence-based practices for evaluating and managing PPA to support individuals and their care partners effectively.

Research in CAPD Diagnostics & Management

As the field of audiology evolves, there is a need to evolve with it. This includes offering more diagnostic/rehabilitation services that are within our scope of practice. There is more awareness of CAPD among the public, but there is a lack of clinicians to offer diagnostic/rehabilitation services for auditory processing skills. This session will focus on current research regarding CAPD on survey data, CAPD diagnostic tools, and CAPD management from the combined author’s research labs.

Swiss Army Knife of Conflict Resolution

Problem: Individuals or teams that are embroiled in chronic conflicts are exhausting. They stay stuck. Work suffers. However, lack of conflict can be just as harmful to an organization as too much. An organization’s response to conflict is where problems begin. If teams approach conflicts as opportunities, the conflict serves it purpose. Conflict is a normal result of personality differences and everyday differences of opinion. If everyone settles for the “way it has always been,” problem solving skills suffer. Solution: Participants in this session will receive useful, practical information that can be applied immediately on the job, including tools to resolve problems with their team, customers and leaders. They will be given an easy-to-follow process for solutions with buy-in from everyone.

This session explores how a remote SLP partnered with special educators in a multi-grade classroom serving students with severe communication needs to deliver AAC-based intervention using SmartBoard technology. Through push-in sessions, collaboration with the district AAC team, and IEP updates reflecting a 50-word core board, this approach led to increased student engagement, teacher confidence, and family buy-in. Attendees will learn how to align remote therapy with classroom routines using evidence-based, multimodal strategies that support carryover and inclusion—even in self-contained settings. Practical tips and frameworks will be shared to help SLPs implement this model in their own districts.

What Makes a Good Word List?

This session unpacks the science and strategy behind building effective word lists in speech-language therapy. Word lists should do more than provide practice items—they should support speech sound development, literacy growth, vocabulary expansion, and syntax practice. Participants will learn how to design word lists that are developmentally appropriate, aligned with a logical scope and sequence, inclusive, and efficient enough to target multiple goals at once. By the end, participants will walk away with evidence-based strategies and practical tools to create word lists that give them (and their students) the most bang for their buck.

Assessment and Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech- Part 2

Did you know that some characteristics of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) are discriminative, helping differentiate CAS from non-motor speech sound disorders, while still overlapping with childhood dysarthria? This makes it critical for clinicians to understand both the overlaps and the key features that define CAS. In this course, we will examine the definition and hallmark characteristics of CAS and compare them with overlapping features seen in other pediatric motor speech disorders. You will learn how to apply a dynamic motor speech assessment to consistently identify patterns in a child’s speech and determine whether CAS is present. Through clinical examples and practical strategies, participants will gain confidence in conducting informal assessments, distinguishing CAS from other speech disorders, and laying the foundation for an appropriate, evidence-based therapy approach. By the end of the session, clinicians will be equipped to identify CAS accurately and prepare children for meaningful progress in treatment.

Simple Strategies for Cultivating Feeding Development

This session is designed to provide evidence-based strategies to support feeding skill development and mealtime success to SLP’s working with young children. Pediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD) will be defined using four domains: medical, nutritional, feeding skill, and psychosocial factors. Appropriate healthcare professional referral sources will be identified according to this framework. Strategies to nurture feeding development will include mealtime structure and modeling, making foods manageable, reinforcing target behaviors, and teaching within a cognitively appropriate context in the birth to three population.

This session will provide speech-language pathologists with resources to provide evidence-based practice for the treatment of decreased verbal expression skills in relation to aphasia in fast-paced medical settings such as skilled nursing facilities, inpatient hospitals, and outpatient rehabilitation facilities. This session is open to all convention attendees, but it may be most beneficial for clinicians just starting out in an adult medical setting; however, more experienced clinicians may find the information presented to be a helpful refresher on EBP! The focus of this session is functional, and the goal is for attendees to leave the session with increased confidence in their ability to provide EBP to treat impaired verbal expression due to aphasia.

Phonak Through the Lifespan

This session will provide an in-depth overview of the current Phonak portfolio, spanning solutions for pediatric, adolescent, and adult clients. Attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of the full range of hearing solutions available, highlighting how Phonak offers a tailored option for every type of hearing need. From the youngest patients to older adults, this session will demonstrate that there truly is a solution for every ear.