ASHA BookTalk Success Stories

Appalachian State University ASHA BookTalk Group

by Jennifer Van Gilder

The clinical educators at Appalachian State University are working on their second ASHA BookTalk group. The clinical faculty were already meeting once a month to discuss issues related to clinical education. They decided to use that time to earn some very low cost CEUs while simultaneously preparing for a clinical seminar for practicum students. Their first selection was Survival Guide for the Beginning Speech-Language Clinician by Susan Moon Meyer (Pro-Ed). While the subject matter was very basic for experienced clinicians, they focused their discussion of the book in terms of how it could be used collectively by the clinical educators as a reference tool for student clinicians and, in some cases, as a textbook for clinical seminar topics.

They so enjoyed their first BookTalk experience that they selected another book, again with the intention of employing it in their clinical seminars with student clinicians. Their second book was Counseling in Communication Disorders: A Wellness Perspective by Audrey Holland (Plural Publishing). They plan to continue to participate in a BookTalk group each semester. In order to obtain 1.2 CEUs each semester, they scheduled six two-hour meetings across the fall and spring semesters. The paperwork was quite manageable, mostly occurring on the front end. The coordinator is required to keep an attendance log and to submit a simple report at the end of the experience so ASHA can provide the CEUs. The clinical educators at Appalachian State University strongly recommend the ASHA BookTalk experience.

Reprinted with permission from North Carolina Association of Supervisors in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology

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University of Montana Alumni ASHA BookTalk Group 

I just wanted to share this photo with ASHA and let you know how much we love our Book Talk group. We are a group of SLP’s that attended graduate school together 20 years ago at the University of Montana. For the most part (two of us are married) we live in different towns and we love getting together to talk about our book. It has been great to share ideas and to compare what is presented in the text with what we are doing in practice. This has been an excellent way to get CEU’s. We all get so much out of the discussions.

We had our last meeting at Chico Hot Springs, an old time Montana attraction. We soaked and talked and laughed a lot!

Thanks for making this possible.

Rachel Stansberry