Episode 70: Katya Hill: Developing an ASHA Specialty Certification for AAC

If you are interested in learning about the proposed ASHA AAC Clinical Speciality Certification, don’t miss this week’s interview with Dr. Katya Hill! Before the interview, Rachel shares why her jury duty was not as bad as she had expected, and why taking a step away from work can be so helpful. Next, Rachel and Chris discuss new AAC users who repeatedly press all (or only one) of the buttons on their device, and why this doesn’t need to be actively discouraged for the behavior to fade. Finally, Chris talks about his experience touring schools to evaluate classroom seating and lighting design. 

Next, Chris and Rachel interview Dr. Kayta Hill, Associate Professor at Pitt and leader in developing the new AAC Clinical Specialty Certification! First, Katya shares about how she came up with the phrase “SNUG” (spontaneous novel utterance generation) while working on her dissertation. Next, Katya discusses her role in gaining approval for an AAC Specialty Certification and why a specialty certification for AAC is being sought. Katya also covers why graduate-level AAC instruction will hopefully improve as a result. The process of developing the certification, including identifying specific AAC competencies, is also discussed.

Links:

ASHA’s page for New Specialty Areas: https://www.asha.org/Certification/specialty/Approved-Petitioning-Groups-for-New-Specialty-Areas/

Clinical AAC Research Conference at Howard University, October 17th-19th: https://aacinstitute.org/2019-caac/