Perspectives on Administration and Supervision

Coordinator's Column

Victor, S. — 2009-06-04

Leadership: Finding Your Inner Throgmartin

Golper, L. A. C. — 2009-06-04

This article suggests we all have leadership potential within us (our inner Throgmartin). Unlocking and cultivating that potential requires acquiring leadership knowledge, perfecting leadership skills, and developing a leadership style that fits best with one's personality and role (director, manager, volunteer). This article looks at sources of empowerment available to leaders and the sources of stress in leadership. The keys to achieving and sustaining resilient, healthy leaders, particularly in difficult times, are discussed. The article suggests resilient leadership lies with work and home life integration, and networking with other leaders.

Facilitating Supervisee Cultural Fluency for a Multicultural Society

Staub, K. J. — 2009-06-04

Multiculturalism has been, and will only continue to become more of a fact in our society and professional practice. Because of this, supervisors have both a practical reason and ethical responsibility for facilitating their supervisees' cultural fluency. This article explores multiculturalism, offering a working definition, emphasizing the dynamic nature of the concept, and reasserting its need for inclusion in the supervisory process. The development of cultural fluency is presented, primarily as a process predicated upon the supervisee's attainment of self-awareness as a means of establishing responsive, reciprocal, and respectful relationships. Supervisor facilitation of cultural fluency is addressed in the context of modeling relevant skills for the supervisee in the clinical setting. Indicators for assessing supervisor performance as multicultural clinic educators are presented, as are criteria for evaluating the supervisee's progression toward becoming a culturally fluent practitioner and individual.

Responses to Intervention Program Outcomes for Pre-K

Webb, L., Griggs, L. A., Green, C. — 2009-06-04

This article addresses outcomes as they relate to a responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI/RtI) model used in a pre-kindergarten (pre-k) setting. The RTI model requires frequent progress monitoring of at-risk students' responses to evidence-based interventions. Treatment outcomes studies judge whether interventions are effective for their intended purpose. This article defines outcomes, describes the importance of outcomes in an RTI model, and tells how to obtain outcome data. Outcomes from a pre-k language intervention will be presented.

Reflections on Reflections: Learning Processes in Speech and Language Pathology Students' Clinical Education

Meilijson, S., Katzenberger, I. — 2009-06-04

The investigators' goal was to study the early clinical education processes of students enrolled in a speech-language pathology program by analyzing content of their written reflections. In this study, the authors propose and apply a method of analyzing written reflections of the students during the first stages of their clinical education. Forty written reflections taken from the observation reports submitted by the students were compiled from the first and second year students of the Communication Disorders Department. A quantitative (number of words and clauses of the entire report and its content categories) and a qualitative analysis (based upon the three qualitative levels of reflections suggested by Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985) were performed. Results show that text length of reflections increased with learning. Students use different content categories at different stages of the learning period. The level of reflection used most frequently by the students is "returning to experience." The content categories raised by the students reflected complexity of the task, acquired knowledge of the students, and their ongoing experience. Written reflections may be used to evaluate the performance of students in the clinical education process.

Counseling Adolescents With Hearing Loss Using a Narrative Therapy Approach

Crowell, R. L. N., Hanenburg, J., Gilbertson, A. — 2009-06-04

Audiologists have a responsibility to counsel patients with auditory concerns on methods to manage the inherent challenges associated with hearing loss at every point in the process: evaluation, hearing aid fitting, and follow-up visits. Adolescents with hearing loss struggle with the typical developmental challenges along with communicative challenges that can erode one's self-esteem and self-worth. The feeling of "not being connected" to peers can result in feelings of isolation and depression. This article advocates the use of a Narrative Therapy approach to counseling adolescents with hearing loss. Adolescents with hearing loss often have problem-saturated narratives regarding various components of their daily life, friendships, amplification, academics, etc. Audiologists can work with adolescents with hearing loss to deconstruct the problem-saturated narratives and rebuild the narratives into a more empowering message. As the adolescent retells their positive narrative, they are likely to experience increased self-esteem and self-worth.