Acceptable Activities for Professional Development
Selecting Your Professional Development Activities
As you begin accumulating your Certification Maintenance
Hours, you must select
No Pre-Approval Necessary
You do not need to obtain prior approval from ASHA for the
professional development activities you choose.
Generally Accepted Activities
Activities will generally be accepted if you determine that
they contribute to your professional development and will lead to
acquiring and enhancing skills and knowledge required for
independent practice. Some examples include
-
teacher-oriented content
that is not related to the professions but enhances your
ability to better serve your clients;
-
business and management content
that will help you manage your private practice more
effectively;
-
supervisory and leadership content
for individuals employed in supervisory or management
positions;
-
employer-sponsored in-service activities
such as Grand Rounds, special education workshops (i.e.,
Americans with Disabilities Act requirements), formal training
sessions sponsored by manufacturers on equipment used in the
evaluation or treatment of your clients, and professional
activities (i.e., professional ethics, diversity issues,
reimbursement issues);
-
other continuing education activities
such as state association workshops, and seminars offered
through other professional associations like those offered for
continuing medical education (CME) units, university scientific
symposia, and formal online, non-credit courses offered through
a university (i.e., autism, literacy, neurological disorders,
genetics, and ethics);
-
College or university course work
at any level-undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral-offered by
regionally accredited programs (can be via distance learning)
in any area that meets the definition of professional
development (i.e., foreign languages needed to communicate with
the population you work with, early childhood development,
autism, literacy, neurological disorders, genetics,
ethics).
Activities Generally Not Accepted
Examples of activities that generally are not accepted as
Certification Maintenance Hours:
- attending meetings, serving on leadership committees,
volunteer activities, etc;
- routine work experiences such as supervising clinical
fellows, developing curriculum, publishing articles, or making
presentations are not considered professional development
activities when they are part of your job responsibilities and
when they are not a supervised educational experience;
- committee or board meetings;
- association membership and leadership activities;
- business meetings;
- work experience;
- unsupervised or self-directed study*
- supervising student practicum
- supervising a clinical fellow
- curriculum development
- research activities
- teaching courses
- presenting workshops and seminars
- authoring books, chapters, or articles
*For unsupervised study or self-directed study, you may be
able to earn ASHA CEUs by creating an
Independent Study plan.
Generally, unsupervised or self-directed study is not accepted
as Certification Maintenance Hours because there is not a third
party that can verify the number of hours the certificate holder
spent as a learner. However, if third party documentation can be
provided, it should verify the number of hours the certificate
holder spent as a learner throughout the activity.