Jacksonville, Florida – January 15, 2010 — Professional Development Resources, has announced the appointment of Amanda Hunt, MA, CCC-SLP as the speech-language pathology (SLP) member of its professional advisory board. The professional advisory board, which consists of practicing professionals in all of the clinical fields served by Professional Development Resources, advises the president and staff on the practice issues and continuing education (CE) needs of their professions. The purpose is to assure that the CE offerings developed by the company are timely and relevant for the professionals it serves.
“Ms. Hunt is a near-perfect fit for us,” states Leo Christie, PhD, CEO of Professional Development Resources. “She brings relevant clinical and educational experience, as well as representing the newer generation of speech-language pathologists. This is very important to us, since one of our goals is to keep our approach to SLP CE fresh and innovative.”
Professional Development Resources is continually expanding its curriculum, which currently includes 25 accredited CE courses for speech-language pathologists. SLPs, who are certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and licensed in most states, are required to maintain their clinical skills by earning continuing education units each time they renew their licenses.
The company’s 25 SLP courses have all undergone the rigorous review processes ASHA requires before it registers a CE course for CEUs. ASHA is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for its 135,000 members and affiliates, who are speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. All course manuscripts are subjected to a pilot study by a panel of testers and must be recommended by at least two peer reviewers who are experts in the topic area.
Professional Development Resources has developed an advanced website that is designed to makes its courses readily accessible anytime, anywhere to anyone with a computer. All courses and the detailed descriptions of their content and desired learner outcomes are available on the company’s website http://www.pdresources.org. Several are online courses, which the user can purchase and complete immediately online. Other courses utilize published textbooks written by some of the best-known experts in speech, language, and hearing sciences.
In consideration of the broad spectrum of professional specialties practiced by SLPs, Professional Development Resources has endeavored to develop courses that address the wide range of topics SLPs need to sharpen and expand their competencies. In addition, because they frequently work on interdisciplinary teams that include other health and mental health professionals, many of the topics have cross-disciplinary relevance. Among the specialized courses are titles dealing with ADHD, Autism and Aspergers, articulation and phonology, aphasia and other neurogenic disorders, dysphasia, evidence-based practice, learning disabilities, and stuttering.