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The ASHA Leader (April 29) well illustrates the massive shifts of emphasis in membership thinking. Stan Goldberg's guest editorial, "Are We as a Profession Losing Our Heart?," represents a look at a caring profession, while President Glenda J. Ochsner promotes an external concern of our profession in her "Evidence-Based Practice." In my 50 years of ASHA membership, I have seen the "focus of concern pendulum" swing from an analytic/counseling focus to structural/organic to operant learning to linguistic emphasis to computer programming to neurogenic causation to multicultural diversity—and now the latest pendulum swing to looking at evidence of treatment efficacy.
Each emphasis area was usually presented by its advocates with a fervency and sometimes with an intolerance for the thinking that shaped previous areas of focus. However, we have survived with two professions in ASHA, with a huge increase of professional members providing remediation services with positive outcomes for an increasing number of people with communication problems. I wonder what the next focus of concern will be after we survive the present needed look at treatment efficacy?
Daniel R. Boone
Tucson, AZ
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