NH-ME LEND Faculty Make Impact at ASHA National Conference
This past fall, two NH-ME LEND faculty members traveled to Washington, D.C., for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Both Spanish-English bilingual speech-language pathologists, Meg Morgan (University of NH) and Desi Peña (University of Maine), were there to learn, present, and educate legislators about key ASHA-supported bills aimed at improving the lives of children with developmental disabilities.
The annual convention is one of the largest professional development events for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, speech, language, and hearing scientists, and speech-language pathology and audiology assistants. It brings together approximately 15,000 attendees and offers more than 2,500 sessions. Through partnership and collaboration, ASHA advances science, fosters excellence in education and professional practice, establishes standards and advocates for accessible, quality care for all.
Meg Morgan presented an afternoon session titled Building Confidence in Differential Diagnosis of DLD: An Assessment Framework for School-Based SLPs. Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects language comprehension and formulation and affects 1 in 14 people. Due to a lack of awareness, DLD is underdiagnosed and underresearched. Geared toward school-based speech-language pathologists, the goal of Morgan’s session was to bring clarity, structure and confidence to clinical decision-making and improve the accuracy of DLD diagnoses.
“A lot has changed about the way we assess DLD over the past 10 years! My session was designed to bring clarity, structure, and confidence to clinical decision-making and help to improve the accuracy of diagnosis.”
- Meg Morgan
The day before the ASHA Convention, Desi Peña attended ASHA’s Advocacy Day with 300 other SLPs, audiologists, students, and assistants. It was historically the biggest showing on Capitol Hill for ASHA, with over 260 Congressional meetings. Desi attended six meetings with Maine and Rhode Island legislative staff to advocate for improved coverage of speech-language therapy and audiology services.
“Participating in LEND, initially as a trainee and now as a faculty member, started me on this journey and I’m proud to be a part of this professional community.”
- Desi Peña
Like Meg, Desi is committed to making an impact on her greater community through education. This past October, she presented at Maine’s Statewide Early Childhood Education Conference on strategies for making classroom inclusion happen for non-speaking and minimally speaking children.
NH-ME LEND is proud to have these two very dedicated faculty members who are making a difference within their communities and at the national level.
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