Normal Swallowing 101: Clinical Workshop

Recent data indicate that SLPs practicing in dysphagia received insufficient training in their formal academic education on fundamentals of normal and disordered swallowing physiology. The goal of the Normal Swallowing 101: Clinical Workshop is therefore to train clinicians to: (a) differentiate among normal, functional, and dysfunctional swallowing physiology and (b) directly apply this knowledge to the diagnosis and treatment of swallowing disorders. Note: clinicians must pass the post-test with an 80% in order to successfully complete this course.

Learning Objectives: 

• Identify insufficiencies in traditional SLP training in swallowing anatomy and physiology.
• Describe the normal variability in oropharyngeal swallowing
• Differentiate between normal, functional and disordered swallowing.
• Describe objective metric based clinical measures to establish a diagnostic baseline and to track treatment gains in dysphagia management.
• Learn medical documentation that differentiates normal, functional, and dysfunctional swallowing in diagnostics
• Learn medical documentation that differentiates normal, function, and dysfunctional swallowing in treatment
• Learn to plot the course of change in therapy using objective physiologic outcomes.