Course curriculum

  • 1

    Course content

    • PowerPoint

    • Rethinking Aural Rehab

    • Quiz

    • Evaluation

    • Continuing Education Credits

Course information

Course description: This presentation will provide an overview of the history of our fields and their roles in upholding the medical model of disability and upholding a view of the way people should communicate that oppresses the DHH community and sign language. This includes establishing a common vocabulary that is necessary for understanding how to rethink aural rehab. The presenters will share journeys of how they came to teach aural rehabilitation through a lens that prevents language deprivation, values the contribution of DHH adults, and views the Deaf community as part of human diversity. We will share resources used in preparing students to be practitioners who are aware of their own biases and the harm that has historically been done to DHH clients by SLPs and audiologists. There will be time for discussion of ways that all practitioners can serve DHH clients in a culturally affirming way that prevents language deprivation.

Agenda:

10 minutes: Introductions, our own experiences

20 minutes: Definitions of common vocabulary; why are we here? What does it mean to rethink aural rehab? Overview of the history of our field in relation to DHH people, discussion of power and privilege (hospital professionals vs. community and school-based professionals), myths and facts

30 minutes: Kym and Michelle will each share how they have adjusted their syllabi to rethink aural rehab

40 minutes: What can you do in your capacity as an educator/supervisor? This will include workshopping syllabi.


Learner outcomes:

Participants will be able to:

  1. Identify three examples of systemic oppression (historically or currently) in relation to our professions and the deaf community that has led to the need to rethink aural rehab 

  2. Develop three learning or therapy objectives/SMART goals that will allow them as practitioners, their students, or their supervisees rethink and reframe their aural rehab practices and perspectives

  3. Identify three possible individuals or systems of support that can assist them in applying a #RethinkingAuralRehab framework to higher education, supervision, or clinical work

Instructor(s)

Kym Meyer

Kym Meyer, Ph.D., CCC-A worked in Deaf Education for 30 years as a teacher, an educational audiologist and program administrator. She graduated from Gallaudet University with an audiology degree, and in 2021, completed a PhD in Special Education Policy at UMass-Amherst to help school personnel outside of DeafEd understand the language and learning needs of low incidence deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) children. In 2022, Dr. Meyer completed a Certificate in Disability and Health Policy through LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities) Fellowship at the Shriver Center/UMass/Chan Medical School. LEND provides graduate-level interdisciplinary training to improve the health of children and youth with developmental disabilities.

Michelle Veyvoda

Michelle Veyvoda, Ph.D. CCC-SLP, worked as a speech-language pathologist at the St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf in Brooklyn, NY where she worked with children who used spoken language, sign language, and AAC. She received her Ph.D. in Deaf Education at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2013 and did her dissertation research on the preparedness of SLPs to work with deaf children who sign. Dr. Veyvoda then transitioned into working in early intervention in New York City and surrounding suburban communities, where she did home-based therapy with deaf children and their families. This experience clarified for Dr. Veyvoda the tremendous inequities in early intervention and the incomplete information that families are given regarding their deaf children’s language development. She ultimately made her way to Iona University, where she is an associate professor and currently serves as department chair. At Iona, Dr. Veyvoda co-directs the Interdisciplinary Advanced Certificate for Working with Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children and Their Families (IACD), a U.S. Department of Education grant-funded program that prepares graduate students in CSD and Early Childhood Education to work with deaf children in a way that prioritizes language access. She has been rethinking, re-imagining, and revising her aural rehabilitation syllabus throughout the seven years she has been teaching the class.

Speaker disclosures

Financial disclosures: Kym and Michelle are receiving roya. Kym is an assistant professor at Worcester State University and a consultant deaf educator for The Learning Center for the Deaf and through public school partnerships. Michelle receives a percentage of her Iona University salary through the U.S. Department of Education grant, which funds the IACD, of which she is a co-director. 

Nonfinancial disclosures: Kym has no relevant nonfinancial disclosures. Michelle is the co-director of the IACD, which promotes a bilingual/bimodal approach to language development for deaf children.

Continuing Education

This course is offered for 0.15 ASHA CEUs.