SLP Learning Hour

Get ASHA CEUs: Speech Therapy PD
Watch on YouTube
Join the Beyond Words Newsletter
Learn more about Dr. Barenholtz:
Elan's substack
Elan on X
Elan's lab
Elan's YouTube channel

Join host Garrett Oyama in this thought-provoking episode of Beyond Words, featuring Dr. Elan Barenholtz, cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University. Together, they explore Dr. Barenholtz’s compelling theory that language is not invented, but discovered—emerging from structured, sequential patterns much like music. They dive deep into the concept of language as an autoregressive system, where meaning arises not from static symbols but from dynamic movement through linguistic space. Key topics include the aesthetics of syntax, the parallels between language and jazz improvisation, and what large language models can teach us about human communication. With implications for AI, language development, and clinical practice, this episode offers a paradigm-shifting view of how we speak, think, and understand the world.

Join the Beyond Words Newsletter
Get ASHA CEUs: SpeechTherapyPD
Watch on YouTube
Description:
What shapes the way humans speak? In this episode of Beyond Words, Garrett Oyama sits down with Dr. Ted Gibson, professor of cognitive science at MIT and director of the MIT Language Lab, to explore how language emerges from cognitive and communicative pressures.
From Amazonian hunter-gatherer languages with no number words, to cross-linguistic patterns explained by dependency length minimization, Ted shares insights from decades of research across dozens of languages. We also discuss why syntax matters for communication, how brain imaging separates language from thought, and what this means for speech-language pathologists, educators, and anyone fascinated by human cognition.
Find Dr. Gibson here:
X
Lex Fridman Interview

Join the Beyond Words Newsletter
Get CEUs: SpeechTherapyPd
Watch on YouTube
What does it take to make sense of the sound soup that surrounds a newborn? In this episode of Beyond Words, Garrett Oyama sits down with Dr. Jenny Saffran—pioneer of infant statistical learning—to explore how babies transform streams of speech into meaningful language, all without seeing “white spaces” between words.
Together, they dive into:
How infants use statistical learning to segment and group sounds
Why the brain’s ability to track syllable patterns is like a built-in prediction engine
How context and the physical environment (like shape-sorter toys!) support early word learning
New work applying eye-tracking to understand language in children with cerebral palsy
The intersection of music, language, and domain-general learning mechanisms

Dr. Saffran also weighs in on nature vs. nurture, the rise of large language models, and why infants may be motivated not by communication—but by the desire to grip the world with meaning.
Whether you’re a speech therapist, a cognitive science fan, or just fascinated by how humans learn to speak, this conversation opens up wonder and insight on every level.

Expert Panel: Amy Hobek, PhD, CCC-SLP, Fé González Murray, EdD, CCC-SLP, Vishnu KK Nair, Archie Soelaeman, Betty Yu and Reem Khamis
Take ACTION HERE: Changes to 2020 certification standards feedback. Survey. (n.d.). https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2020_Cert_Changes
This episode will be available for 0.1 ASHA CEU on July 4, enroll here: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/courses/ashas-proposed-changes
Correction Note from Dr. Betty: “During the recording I referred to the executive order targeting associations with assets of $500 million or more. I thought ASHA met that criteria but actually ASHA’s net assets are around $174 million.”
In this episode, Michelle and Erin host an all start line up of colleagues from across the globe to discuss ASHA’s Proposed Changes to the “2020 Certification Standards” and the long-term ramifications that these changes could have for our profession. This conversation is timely in that there are only a matter of days, roughly 3 weeks or less, for audiologists and speech-language pathologists (including students) to write in and advocate to ASHA on whether the proposed changes to the 2020 Certification Standards should be accepted… changes that remove key words and language that were hard fought to obtain. Be informed that this conversation does address political rationale behind the changes and offer a plethora of resources for individuals to grow their knowledge regarding the long-term ramifications of these proposed changes… but it ends with resources on how to make your voice heard! So, come join the ladies of “First Bite” and ADVOCATE!
About the Panel:
Amy Hobek, PhD, CCC-SLP is an Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Cincinnati. Her teaching and scholarship focus on equity and inclusion, with an emphasis on valuing and legitimizing cultural and linguistic variations in these areas within individuals, families, and communities. She is also a licensed speech language pathologist providing clinic supervision of graduate students in a culturally and linguistically diverse preschool setting on UC’s campus. She is a co-chair of the Cultural Humility Task Force of the National Black Association of Speech Language and Hearing. She is a topic co-chair of Equity, Inclusion, and Cultural-Linguistic Diversity for the ASHA 2025 Convention.
Professor Reem Khamis (also known as Reem Khamis-Dakwar) is Professor Emerita at Adelphi University and Chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Long Island University (LIU) Brooklyn. Her expertise centers on language development, processing, and clinical services within the sociolinguistic context of diglossia and diverse populations. Dr. Khamis is co-founder of the Journal of the Critical Study of Communication and Disability (JCSCD) and a co-founding member of the Speech, Language, and Hearing Scientists Equity Action Collective. She currently serves as Language Section Editor for the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR). She received the Excellence in Diversity Award in 2020 from the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CAPCSD).
Fé González Murray, EdD, CCC-SLP is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northern Arizona University. Prior to joining the NAU faculty, she worked for 25 years as an English/Spanish bilingual speech-language pathologist in various settings, most notably in public schools serving Indigenous American, migrant, and immigrant populations. In addition to teaching and supervising clinical rotations, she facilitates workshops nationally and internationally on topics related to responsive practice with culturally and linguistically diverse individuals and their families, including multilingualism and collaboration with interpreters.
Vishnu KK Nair is a lecturer in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at University of Reading, UK. He currently co-leads the health theme of the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, University of Reading. His current research utilizes critical, decolonial and more than human approaches to understanding communication and disability. He is committed towards building a body of interdisciplinary and anti-colonial scholarship that de-pathologizes communication disability and focuses on understanding and affirming communication variability. His teaching and research have won multiple teaching excellence, research supervision and best student dissertation awards.
Archie Soelaeman (she/her) is the Manager of School Speech Language Services and a speech-language pathologist at Helping Hand School in Countryside, Illinois, a therapeutic day school. She provides services to students with a primary diagnosis of autism and collaborates with a multidisciplinary team on a daily basis. She has over 16 years of experience in this setting. Her clinical interests include autism spectrum, augmentative and alternative communication, and apraxia. Archie is also a co-president of the Asian Pacific Islander Speech-Language-Hearing Caucus, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose primary mission is to make connections among API groups, share common concerns in education, and advocate for quality speech and hearing service delivery for individuals across diverse API communities. Archie is a native speaker of Bahasa Indonesia who also has conversational proficiency in Spanish.
Betty Yu is a Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and a Co-Managing Editor of the Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability. Her research and clinical interests are in how communication access among racially-minoritized, disabled children in multilingual communities are shaped by institutional practices/policies, family socialization, and dominant ideologies about race/language/disability. She also focuses on issues of equity in the field of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS), particularly as related to the systemic influences of raciolinguistic discrimination, ableism and pathologization.
Show Notes:
Asian Pacific Islander speech-language-hearing caucus. Asian Pacific Islander Speech-Language-Hearing Caucus. (2022, December 14). https://apislhc.org/
Beaver, D. (2024). The politics of language. Princeton University Press.
El Akkad, O. (2025). One day, everyone will have always been against this. Alfred A. Knopf.
Karen Yourish, A. D. (2025, March 8). These words are disappearing in the new Trump administration. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html
Ostrager, A.-E., Jordan, J., & High, T. R. (2025, February 10). President Trump acts to roll back dei initiatives. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/02/10/president-trump-acts-to-roll-back-dei-initiatives/

-Originally Aired September 2019-
Earn a total of 0.5 ASHA CEUs for the 5-part episodes with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=The-Perfect-Oral-Motor-Storm-What-Happened-Why-and-Supportiv
In this five-hour course, Char chronicles a comprehensive account of the events of the past two decades that have infused and inspired one of the most controversial—and misunderstood—storms in the history of speech-language pathology.
Perhaps you’re unsure why “oral motor” has been criticized, or how to respond when someone mentions it. You’ll learn what to say and how to back it up. Char covers the “Five Waves” as to what happened, who did what, and where we go from here.
Most importantly, you’ll learn Supportive Evidence for the Use of Oral Sensory-Motor Methods to Remediate Speech Sound Productions.