As this year comes to a close, it is time to make sure all of your continuing education units (CEUs) are in order! While state licenses for speech-language pathology vary from state to state for CEU requirements, ASHA requires 30 hours of qualifying professional development every 3 years. Not sure what counts as an continuing education for ASHA? There are a wide variety of activities that ASHA will accept. According to the ASHA website, the following are generally accepted as CEU activities:
- "Teacher-oriented content that is not related to the professions but enhances your ability to better serve your clients;
- Business and management content that will help you manage your private practice more effectively;
- Supervisory and leadership content for individuals employed in supervisory or management positions;
- Employer-sponsored in-service activities such as Grand Rounds, special education workshops (i.e., Americans with Disabilities Act requirements), formal training sessions sponsored by manufacturers on equipment used in the evaluation or treatment of your clients, and professional activities (i.e., professional ethics, diversity issues, reimbursement issues);
- Other continuing education activities such as state association workshops, and seminars offered through other professional associations like those offered for continuing medical education (CME) units, university scientific symposia, and formal online, non-credit courses offered through a university (i.e., autism, literacy, neurological disorders, genetics, and ethics);
- College or university course work at any level-undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral-offered by regionally accredited programs (can be via distance learning) in any area that meets the definition of professional development (i.e., foreign languages needed to communicate with the population you work with, early childhood development, autism, literacy, neurological disorders, genetics, ethics)."
ASHA allows SLPs to pick and choose the professional development activities that will be most beneficial to her and her particular population and setting. While looking for the ASHA approved CE provider logo is one way to know if a course may be beneficial to you, it is not required to take ASHA approved CEUs. You can also take university coursework, participate in employer provided professional development (if it is relevant to your position), or participate in other professional organizations' continuing education activities. This is something I have found to be confusing in the past! I always looked for that ASHA CE logo, but as long as the professional development is related to your work - document it! It counts! You do not need to have the ASHA CE logo stamped on it.
Is the end of your certification maintenance period looming? Check out these ways to get in some easy free CEUs!
- Review your employer-sponsored activities you have participated in! If your employer provided relevant training or professional development, backtrack to how long you spent in the training and have some proof you attended. Many employers provide some way of tracking online what activities you have participated in for easy documentation.
- Free ASHA provided CEUs! To celebrate 15 years of providing professional development, ASHA decided to giveaway 15 CEU courses for free! I'm still celebrating.
- Super Duper not only provides fun therapy materials, but they also have a few free CEUs.
- SATPAC - this online program provides activities for remediating articulation disorders. They also provide a free course about using SATPAC for artic therapy for /r/ and /l/.
- The AAC Institute provides a few courses online of varying difficulty. These are great refreshers for those who don't regularly work with AAC.
- Passy-Muir, Inc., provides several webinars for continuing education on their website related to their speaking valves.
- Lingraphica, a company that develops devices and apps for communication, has a few webinars about using their devices and products with patients and caregivers.
- Mayer-Johnson, the creator of the beloved Boardmaker, has TONS of resources for professional development using their products!
- Interactive Metronome provides free CEUs for their introductory courses.
- Dynovox, a company that creates AAC devices, has several scheduled and recorded webinars for CEU related to their devices.
- Keep an eye out for offers from sites like speechpathology.com, which occasionally offer promo codes for a free course!
Have you found any other free CEUs or have some CEU tips? Comment below to share!
~Erin
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