Association Recognizes News Outlets for Outstanding Coverage and Member Experts for Outreach Work.
Rockville, MD - August 2, 2016 - In recognition of exceptional news reporting that contributed to improved public awareness about communication disorders, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has selected seven media outlets as winners of its 2016 Media Awards.
ASHA also has named six member experts as its Media Outreach Champions, honoring their efforts to advance public education of speech, language, and hearing disorders.
The 2016 Media Award winners are as follows:
Broadcast Media
Colorado Public Radio: For its story, How to Get Kids to Turn the Volume Down and Save Their Ears, the station asked kids about their device listening habits, spotlighted ASHA's Listen To Your Buds education campaign, and provided expert advice to parents on how to protect kids' hearing.
NBC News Feeder Service: An interview with ASHA 2016 President Jaynee Handelsman during Better Hearing & Speech Month was syndicated to local NBC stations around the country through the feeder service—showcasing new ASHA poll findings on families' use of technology and promoting a "digital diet" to reduce solitary tech time in favor of communication.
This Morning With Gordon Deal: The nationally syndicated radio program welcomed Handelsman for a lengthy segment about technology habits and the potential impact on speech and language development as well as hearing in children and teenagers.
Digital Media
HealthyChildren.org: The consumer website for the American Academy of Pediatrics published numerous stories related to children's communication health, including Parents of Young Children: Put Down Your Smartphones and How to Raise Concerns About a Child's Speech and Language Development: Do's and Don'ts.
Print Media
Orange County Register/Center for Health Reporting: Big Money in Nursing Home Therapy, but Is All the Treatment Necessary? delved into the issue of practitioners who work in nursing homes—including speech-language pathologists—being pressured to provide inappropriate treatment for maximum Medicare payouts.
Daily Orange: The student newspaper (Daily Orange) for Syracuse University published an investigative piece titled Double Talk: Syracuse University Institute Continues to Use Discredited Technique With Dangerous Effects. The article examined the Institute's use and promotion of a practice called facilitated communication, which purports to enable people who are nonverbal to communicate via keyboard typing—with assistance from a trained facilitator. Communication experts including a prominent speech-language pathologist were featured in the piece.
Roll Call: The Capitol Hill publication printed the ASHA op-ed, Don't Cut Corners on Veterans' Hearing Care, which advocates for ensuring that veterans with hearing loss and tinnitus (two of the top service–related disabilities) continue to receive care from audiologists as opposed to "hearing aid specialists." These specialists often possess only a high school education or equivalent, and some technical training—not adequate to assess the often complex health needs of veterans.
ASHA's Member Media Outreach Champions for 2016 are:
Lisa Cannon, AuD, CCC-A: The educational audiologist with the Denver Public School System played an instrumental role in the success of ASHA's Listen To Your Buds outreach during the 2015 ASHA Convention in her city. Cannon served as a spokesperson during multiple television and radio interviews—including the local NPR station and ABC and NBC TV affiliates—offering expertise about noise-induced hearing loss and prevention strategies.
Starr Cookman, MA, CCC-SLP: Frustrated with the lack of coverage by many insurance companies for treating voice disorders—which affect 3% to 7% of the population and can cost billions in lost productivity—Cookman championed ways to publicize this issue. She was instrumental in helping ASHA develop a podcast on the topic, which served to both raise public awareness and help put pressure on insurance companies to cover services.
Kate McConville, MS, CCC-SLP: Capitalizing on a newsworthy issue, this speech-language pathologist at the University of Wisconsin Health Voice and Swallow Clinics made a number of effective media appearances on the speaking styles of the presidential hopefuls and their levels of vocal strain, including this piece on Wisconsin public radio.
Nan Bernstein Ratner, PhD, CCC-SLP: A professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park, Bernstein Ratner has served as an expert source for media on many communication topics, including stuttering songbirds. In particular, her work has helped raise public awareness about research breakthroughs in the field of communication sciences and disorders. Most recently, her key involvement in research on noise in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)—which she presented at the 2016 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)—has yielded significant media attention.
Laura Smith, MA, CCC-SLP: After this Colorado-based speech-language pathologist and mother of a daughter with apraxia of speech read about famed MMA fighter Ronda Rousey's (never diagnosed) childhood struggles with communication, Smith approached Rousey at a local book signing and made her aware of apraxia (as detailed in her blog post). That led to national and even international media attention, including Good Morning America and USA Today—raising significant awareness about the disorder. Smith has continued her education efforts.
Janice Trent, AuD, CCC-A: The first member to be recognized twice for an ASHA media award, Audiologist Janice Trent has consistently embraced any opportunity to raise awareness about hearing loss and promote her profession. A longtime spokesperson for Listen To Your Buds, Trent also has been an essential part of ASHA's Value of the CCCs campaign, as the subject of both print and digital ads.
About the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 186,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel; and students. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment, including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems, including swallowing disorders. www.asha.org
