The annual Leadership Conference at UMass is a full day of learning about current practices and leadership opportunities in speech-language pathology and audiology. Below are the key highlights from this educational event!
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Presenters/Topics:
1. Mary-Alice Abbot, MD PhD -- "Genetic Hearing Loss: A Tutorial"
Key Takeaways:
-Genetic disorders, such as Down Syndrome, Williams Syndrome, and Hunter Syndrome, have a major impact in the development of speech, language and hearing disorders. By studying inheritance patterns (e.g., dominant versus recessive expression patterns of genes/disorders across the generations), medical geneticists are making gains in the areas of diagnosis, risk assessment, counseling, preventative measures and management/therapy plans from prenatal to postnatal care.
-In other words, genetic testing can allow families (if they so choose) to become informed about their genetic patterning, hence learning if they carry a gene that may be linked to a disorder. This information will help families avoid additional medical testing for their children in the future by providing families with accurate recurrence risk counseling (i.e,. what are my risks of having a child with a genetic disorder ).
Dr. Abbot is right here at Baystate Medical Center! Learn more here: http://www.baystatehealth.org/Baystate/Main+Nav/Clinical+Services/Departments/Pediatrics/Pediatric+Genetics
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2. Emily Zimmerman, PhD., CCC-SLP - "The Nurturing Womb: How This Enviroment Can Be Leveraged To Optimize Sucking, Feeding, And Growth In Premature Infants"
Key Takeaways:
-Over 4 million babies are born in the U.S. each year and 12% (~476,000) of those babies are born prematurely.
-In the womb, the sensory system begins to mature starring with the sense of touch and ending with vision (touch, balance, taste, smell, hearing, and seeing). Using this information, the presenter researched three areas of sensory stimulation- orocutaneous, vestibular, and auditory. The results showed that sensory stimulation that mimics the womb can optimize outcomes in premature infants in the areas of sucking, feeding and weight gain. Improvements in these areas can result in decreased length of stay in NICU and play a key role in the prediction of neurological development.
Learn more about this speaker: http://www.northeastern.edu/bouve/directory/emily-zimmerman/
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3. Tiffany Hogan, PhD, CCC-SLP -- "Pathways to Reading Comprehension Impairment"
Key Takeaways:
-When we think about "reading", we need to consider both word recognition and listening comprehension
- Word recognition includes knowledge in the areas of phonological awareness (awareness of sounds in a language independent of meaning), alphabetic principles, and written/visual letter knowledge
- Listening comprehension includes knowledge in the areas of vocabulary, background (world knowledge), and running inferences
- Poor readers can be divided into 4 subgroups: dyslexia, non-specified, mixed, and poor comprehenders
- Dyslexia is an impairment in phonological processing, generally seen across the lifespan. For example, adults with dyslexia tend to be poor spellers, read more slowly, and may still have subtle phonological processing deficits
- Dyslexia is not seeing letters backwards; its is not a visual problem
-"Reading" changes over times and targeted intervention is leading to improved outcomes
Learn more about Dr. Hogan and her research at the SAil Literacy Lab located at MGH in Boston, MA: http://www.mghihp.edu/sail-lab/default.aspx
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presenters/Topics:
1. Mary-Alice Abbot, MD PhD -- "Genetic Hearing Loss: A Tutorial"
Key Takeaways:
-Genetic disorders, such as Down Syndrome, Williams Syndrome, and Hunter Syndrome, have a major impact in the development of speech, language and hearing disorders. By studying inheritance patterns (e.g., dominant versus recessive expression patterns of genes/disorders across the generations), medical geneticists are making gains in the areas of diagnosis, risk assessment, counseling, preventative measures and management/therapy plans from prenatal to postnatal care.
-In other words, genetic testing can allow families (if they so choose) to become informed about their genetic patterning, hence learning if they carry a gene that may be linked to a disorder. This information will help families avoid additional medical testing for their children in the future by providing families with accurate recurrence risk counseling (i.e,. what are my risks of having a child with a genetic disorder ).
Dr. Abbot is right here at Baystate Medical Center! Learn more here: http://www.baystatehealth.org/Baystate/Main+Nav/Clinical+Services/Departments/Pediatrics/Pediatric+Genetics
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Emily Zimmerman, PhD., CCC-SLP - "The Nurturing Womb: How This Enviroment Can Be Leveraged To Optimize Sucking, Feeding, And Growth In Premature Infants"
Key Takeaways:
-Over 4 million babies are born in the U.S. each year and 12% (~476,000) of those babies are born prematurely.
-In the womb, the sensory system begins to mature starring with the sense of touch and ending with vision (touch, balance, taste, smell, hearing, and seeing). Using this information, the presenter researched three areas of sensory stimulation- orocutaneous, vestibular, and auditory. The results showed that sensory stimulation that mimics the womb can optimize outcomes in premature infants in the areas of sucking, feeding and weight gain. Improvements in these areas can result in decreased length of stay in NICU and play a key role in the prediction of neurological development.
Learn more about this speaker: http://www.northeastern.edu/bouve/directory/emily-zimmerman/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Tiffany Hogan, PhD, CCC-SLP -- "Pathways to Reading Comprehension Impairment"
Key Takeaways:
-When we think about "reading", we need to consider both word recognition and listening comprehension
- Word recognition includes knowledge in the areas of phonological awareness (awareness of sounds in a language independent of meaning), alphabetic principles, and written/visual letter knowledge
- Listening comprehension includes knowledge in the areas of vocabulary, background (world knowledge), and running inferences
- Poor readers can be divided into 4 subgroups: dyslexia, non-specified, mixed, and poor comprehenders
- Dyslexia is an impairment in phonological processing, generally seen across the lifespan. For example, adults with dyslexia tend to be poor spellers, read more slowly, and may still have subtle phonological processing deficits
- Dyslexia is not seeing letters backwards; its is not a visual problem
-"Reading" changes over times and targeted intervention is leading to improved outcomes
Learn more about Dr. Hogan and her research at the SAil Literacy Lab located at MGH in Boston, MA: http://www.mghihp.edu/sail-lab/default.aspx
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