You have accessThe ASHA LeaderIn the Limelight1 Mar 2020From Helicopters to Hearing AidsAn audiologist uses his military experience to support legislation allowing people with hearing loss to serve. Shelley D. Hutchins Shelley D. Hutchins Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.LML.25032020.26 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In David Alexander knew as a boy he wanted to serve his country. The son of a Marine also wanted to be a pediatrician. In high school, he discovered the Armed Services’ Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program would pay for college. Shortly after starting Loyola University Maryland as pre-med, Alexander realized that path wasn’t for him. “I still wanted to do something related,” he says. “So I literally read through the course catalog and picked communication sciences and disorders (CSD).” Alexander graduated in 2002 as an Army officer headed to helicopter flight training. Although he enjoyed piloting Blackhawks, he couldn’t shake the “medical itch.” In 2009, he met a University of South Dakota audiology professor while giving CSD undergrads his ROTC pitch. The professor encouraged Alexander to complete his audiology degree. Now an audiologist at Virginia Head and Neck Surgeons and serving in the Army Reserves, Alexander applies his piloting skills and experience to his current work. Applying military skills Many skills Alexander used as a pilot enhance his audiology work. Close attention to detail is an obvious overlap. Less so is his willingness to ask others for support. This helped when performing newborn hearing screenings at Maryland School for the Deaf (MSD), where he began in 2015. “Counseling parents was tough, and some parents would get quite emotional,” Alexander says. “I tapped into my ability to ask a more experienced audiologist when I didn’t know how to do something.“ Proving a point Alexander worked with MSD students in a junior cadet program. “We taught leadership training and drill work, which is all about communication,” he says. “In the military this is all verbal command, but we developed hand and arm signs with American Sign Language to do the same marching formations. Our cadets were invited to Fort Jackson in South Carolina to participate in boot camp for a few days. Our students did everything. And they figured out ways to communicate with each other and work together as one big group. The Army mantra happened in front of our eyes— ‘One team, one fight.’” Changing his mind Keith Nolan, a teacher, approached Alexander shortly after he started at MSD. “He is deaf and wanted to join the military,” Alexander says. “He asked what I thought about deaf people serving in the military. I gave a non-answer, but thought to myself it was impossible. But Keith showed me research he’d done on deaf soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force. I then thought—why haven’t we done this already?!” Advocating for change After Keith Nolan convinced Alexander that people who are deaf can serve in the military, the two worked together. “I helped Keith almost pass a bill allowing for a demonstration program of about 20 soldiers who are deaf to serve in the Air Force. It got close last year ... it made it out of the House Armed Services Committee and passed in the House as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), but never made it into the Senate version. It was positive progress, really positive.” Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 25Issue 2March 2020 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Feb 28, 2020 Metrics Downloaded 483 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2020 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderGlimpses1 Mar 2020French Fry ‘Whys’ Hallie ShermanMS, CCC-SLP Hallie Sherman Google Scholar More articles by this author , MS, CCC-SLP https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.GL.25032020.8 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In I am always gathering items that will keep my students motivated and willing to work—and this activity took me minutes to prep. (I am far from crafty—my students laughed when I told them the red splotches were ketchup.) I wrote various “why” questions on the fries. Students took turns taking a french fry and determining which ketchup splotch they need to dip into (so, then, or because) to restate the question into an answer. It was hands-on, fun, and effective. Students can be excited to learn when they use items that are motivating and when concepts are broken down so they can understand. The activity doesn’t have to be pretty or elaborate. (Thanks to McDonald’s for giving me several fries containers when I told them I was an educator and wanted to use them with my students!) About me: I work with fifth- and sixth-grade students in a public school in New York. With a large caseload of students who need constant motivation, I am always looking for quick and easy ways to make concepts more explicit—it builds their confidence when they “get” it. I enjoy sharing these ideas on my Instagram, blog, and Speech Time Fun, my teacherspayteachers store. Author Notes —Hallie Sherman, MS, CCC-SLP instagram.com/speechtimefun Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 25Issue 2March 2020 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Feb 28, 2020 Metrics Downloaded 253 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2020 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderFirst Person on the Last PageJanuary–February 2020Canine and Hearing Support Open Up an Audiology Career for a Student Who Is DeafWith a service dog and cochlear implants, a student born deaf tackles the rigors of an AuD program. Lauren Armstrong Lauren Armstrong Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.FPLP.25012020.72 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In As I sit here, an audiology graduate student who uses cochlear implants, I realize that life presents everybody with sets of different challenges that shape who you are today. I was born into a world of silence. I didn’t hear the sounds of the machines taking my vitals or my parents’ voices speaking loving words to me. Everything was silent, empty, and unknown, until a device was surgically implanted into my inner ear at the age of 2-1/2. Then my world filled with sounds, roaring noises, and beeps. To get to where I am today, I received speech-language intervention as a young girl at the University of Tennessee (UT)—inside Neyland Stadium, where the clinic was located—to learn to speak. I worked to overcome challenges as I tackled how to live in a hearing world with cochlear implants. For example, some people would deliberately cover their mouths or turn their back to me during conversations, and some professors refused to allow my accommodations, saying that I’m not intelligent enough to accomplish anything in life. I found solutions, experimenting with the programming of my cochlear implant and physically manipulating the device to meet my athletic needs. I participated in track, soccer, horseback riding, and dance, and I needed the implant to not fly off my ear. My dad and I put tubing around the bottom of my implant and sewed the tubing into my ear hook to keep it from sliding off from sweat. I was always interested in the programming changes made to my implant—the process itself and why a particular selection was made. And while attending mainstream schools as a kid, I was always interested in math and science. But audiology was not my first choice of field when I was deciding on my future: I originally wanted to become a physician’s assistant while I majored in neuroscience here at UT. Since becoming more accepting of myself and my hearing loss, I have been fully intrigued by the field and cannot get enough of it. I have always wanted to show people who are hard of hearing and deaf that they can achieve anything that they want, and that their hearing loss need not hold them back. I do this daily by advocating for myself and others when available accommodations fail to provide full access to communication, sharing the beautiful American Sign Language through my Painted Pansy Shop on Etsy, and bringing awareness to Canine Companions for Independence hearing service dogs. My service dog, Elroy, alerts me to sounds I can’t hear, even with my cochlear implants. I need him to be able to live independently, especially when I don’t have my implants on. He helps alert me to people calling my name or any other important sounds I might miss. My ultimate goal is to specialize in pediatrics and cochlear implants. I want to show every patient that they can do anything they want, and that hearing loss is not a barrier to success and does not define them. I am eager to see what the future holds as I dive deeper into the field that changed my life at such a young age. Author Notes Lauren Armstrong is a first-year student in the AuD program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. [email protected] Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 25Issue 1January–February 2020 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Jan 1, 2020 Metrics Current downloads: 854 Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagasha-article-typesleader-topicsCopyright & Permissions© 2020 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationPDF downloadLoading ...