LGBTQ Inclusive Practices 101

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) inclusive practices can have a profound positive impact on therapeutic outcomes and quality of life. Being culturally responsive and inclusive of people of all gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations is a sought-after skill by many professionals. In this hour-long introductory level course, participants will learn about LGBTQ-inclusive practices across settings and will leave with the knowledge and tools to begin to implement these practices in their workplaces and with their clients.

The Intersection of Gender and Neurotype; Trauma Informed Approaches

This course will guide participants through an understanding of intersectional identities and affirming practices for folks of all genders and neurotypes. We'll discuss the tenets of trauma-informed care, ways to reduce masking demands and create actionable plans for enabling clients to self-advocate.

Walking Diverse Clinical Pathways: Medical SLP Edition

This course is intended to deepen speech-language pathologists' (SLP) and clinicians' understanding of how they can center underrepresented voices and respect diversity, specifically in hospital-based speech-language pathology. This course will explore some of the clinical and socio-emotional-behavioral complexities experienced from the lens of two queer-identified medical speech-language pathologists, one Black, and the other Latina Jewish. They will explore concepts related to the intersections of race, language, socioeconomic status, gender expression, sexual orientation, and religion in the hospital setting. The format of this presentation is case studies in which the presenters outline a clinical scenario, the dilemma, and potential solutions. They will engage in high-level dialogue about impacted groups, pathways to their decision-making, and patient outcomes.

Creating a Queer and Trans Inclusive Literacy Classroom

In this course, participants will engage with work of literacy education scholars to go beyond "just" putting children's books with LGBTQ+ representation on the shelf. What does it look like to evaluate queer children's literature with a critical lens so what is on the shelf is quality? What does it mean to make use of these texts and build community? How can we use books as probiotics as opposed to antibiotics once bullying or harm has been done? Participants will engage with field-based scholarship to dissect inclusive literacy pedagogy and make plans to bridge it to their own practice.

We Belong: The Intersectionality of Impostor Syndrome for BIPOC LGBTQIA+ SLPs

Most Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are told they will experience impostor syndrome at some point in their careers. While the impostor phenomenon has widely been discussed and researched over the last decade, the body of research has focused on individual analysis. This course will take a closer at the intersectionality of impostor syndrome within the field of speech-language pathology. Attendees will be able to define impostor syndrome and intersectionality, discuss external factors that impact Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA+) SLPs, identify opportunities to demonstrate allyship, and learn strategies to combat impostor syndrome.

Cultural Responsiveness: Crafting Safer Spaces for Autistic LGBTQIA+ Clients

Speech-language Pathologists (SLPs) play a predominant role in care coordination for Autistic clients and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community. Some clients we see are receiving care in connection with their identity status (e.g., Autistic individuals working on social cognition and pragmatics, Transgender or Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) individuals engaging in gender-affirming voice and communication therapy), while other times members of each of these communities receive care for communication needs unrelated to these identities (e.g., a lesbian traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor). Research shows that Autistic individuals are more likely to identify as LGBTQIA+ than non-Autistic individuals, and transgender and gender-diverse individuals demonstrate an increased likelihood of being diagnosed as Autistic or reporting characteristics of Autism than cisgender counterparts. Given the high concordance between LGBTQIA+ identity and Autism, SLPs, therefore, have an ethical responsibility to deliver culturally responsive care to these communities. During the course of this presentation, participants will learn terminology relating to LGBTQIA+ and Autistic identities and receive insight into the lived experiences of members of these communities. Participants will learn to foster “safer” spaces to support LGBTQIA+ and Autistic clients, and will identify places where bias can show up within themselves, workspaces, and broader systems in order to prevent and counteract these biases.