Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups recently published its first issue as a scholarly review journal! The issue contains more than 20 articles representing as broad swath of ASHA’s 19 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), including articles on voice and upper airway disorders, school-based issues, and telepractice.

In addition, this issue contains the first forums from Perspectives, both of which are open access—which means, available for anyone to read!

The first forum contains five tutorials developed by Perspectives’ four editors-in-chief in collaboration with members of ASHA’s Committee on Clinical Research, Implementation Science, and Evidence-Based Practice (CRISP). These articles focus on knowledge translation and bridging the gap between research and practice. Editors-in-Chief Patrick Finn, Brenda L. Beverly, Angela Ciccia, and Barbara Cone write, “The five articles in this inaugural forum are presented as tutorials to help readers appreciate the various approaches for implementing knowledge translation and the important contributions that researchers, educators, practitioners, and clients can make to improve clinical practice.”

The second open access forum is brought to Perspectives by Special Interest Group 1, Language Learning and Education. The forum, guest edited by Holly J. Storkel, focuses on speech sound disorder in schools and how to define impaired articulation, adverse effects, and educational performance. Storkel summarizes the articles succinctly: “The take-home message across articles is that determining eligibility is complex, requiring a comprehensive understanding of a child’s skills with speech sounds but also the impact of their speech errors on written language and social–emotional well-being. These decisions cannot be made quickly with minimal information.”

Perspectives is just one affiliate benefit of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Consider joining one of ASHA’s Special Interest Groups to get access to Perspectives as well as to vibrant online communities and affiliate-only discounts on ASHA Continuing Education content (for which you may be able to earn ASHA continuing education units [CEUs]). With 19 Special Interest Groups to choose from, you’re sure to find a great community of peers.

Additional articles available to Special Interest Group affiliates focus on an interactive multimedia education program to address knowledge gaps related to hearing aids, hearing loss, and communication and the importance of collaboration between speech-language pathologists and school psychologists.

As ASHA’s newest scholarly review journal, Perspectives aims to focus uniquely on issues involving knowledge translation and bridging research and practice. For more information on the Perspectives transition and goals of the publication, please see our blog post about the transition.

References

Finn, P., Beverly, B. L., Ciccia, A., & Cone, B. (2019). Bridging knowledge between research and practice. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 4, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_PERS-ST-2018-0014

Storkel, H. L. (2019). Clinical forum prologue: Speech sound disorders in schools: Who qualifies? Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 4, 56–57. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_PERS-SIG1-2018-0025