For allied health students, anatomy and physiology is a core subject. In order to be successful in their future careers as health professionals, students must be able to understand the structures and functions of the body. However, students struggle with this complex course, each year searching for resources and study tools to increase their chances for success. The plan for the Anatomy & Physiology Review Module originated after hearing this need echoed by both students and instructors.

Below is a question I frequently receive from both students and professionals inquiring about the changes to federal law when it comes to Schedule II prescriptions. Please see my response below and feel free to comment. 

Children with speech sound disorders comprise a large portion of caseloads for speech-language pathologists working with pre-school and school-age children.  Selecting the most appropriate approach in order to yield the maximum change in the child’s phonological system is important to achieve optimal outcomes.  Due to the importance and scope of the topic, I am constantly fielding the question, ‘How do I determine targets for the multiple opposition contrast approach?’ I hope my response below can be of use to you if you are encountering the same problem.

Children with phonological disorders often present challenges to SLPs in determining the most effective and efficient intervention approach, including the targets that will best facilitate significant progress. For some children, the loss of phonemic contrasts represents the core of the phonological disorder. Loss of phonemic contrasts is evident when production errors impact the intended meaning of a word, phrase or sentence. For example, a child may say [ti] for “tea”, but also for “key” and “see”. The words are produced as homonyms and the phonemes [k] and [s] are not use contrastively to create the different meanings represented in the words “key” and “see”.

Children who demonstrate extensive loss of contrast may produce one phoneme for many target phonemes. A collapse of phonemes is identified when a child produces one sound across several different target sounds, thus representing loss of the contrasts needed to create different words. The phoneme identified as the substitution for the target phoneme can also be referred to as the preferred phoneme. For example, an extensive collapse might be represented in a child that substitutes [b] for [d, k, g, m, n, s, l, r, ʃ, ʧ, j, h]. Thus, the targets of do, coo, goo, moo, new, Sue, loo, roo, shoe, chew, you, and who are all produced as boo. The phoneme [b] is the preferred phoneme. This extensive collapse of contrast results in extensive homonymy. Rather than attempt to develop a list of target words for this extensive collapse, phonemes are selected from the error phonemes to represent different phoneme classes. A key feature of the contrast approaches is to promote generalization across sound classes, thus each individual phoneme in the collapse does not need to be targeted. Further examination of the significant collapse where the child substitutes the preferred phoneme [b] for [d, k, g, m, n, s, l, r, ʃ, ʧ, j, h], the collapse represents multiple errors related to the following phoneme classes:
stops [d, k, g],
nasals [m, n],
fricatives [s, ʃ, h],
liquids [l, r],
glides [j], and
affricates [ʧ].

The human body contains 10-100 times more microorganisms (mostly bacteria but also archaea, eukaryotes, and viruses) than it does its own human cells. This is referred to as the human microbiome.  Most of the organisms of the human microbiome inhabit the intestines; they are also found in the nose, vagina, and on the skin.

OMG and Ugh. 

It's no secret that the U.S. diet is woefully unhealthy. According to the University of Washington's U.S. Burden of Disease Collaborators, dietary factors are associated with about 530,000 of the 2.7 million annual U.S. deaths. The World Health Organization lists poor diet as a major contributor to deaths from chronic disease throughout the world (Reference 1). The culprits are easy to identify: too much refined sugar, too much salt, too little fruit and vegetable consumption, and too much red meat. Add too much alcohol consumption if you want to consider alcohol a food. Our current state of unhealthy, low quality cheap food – a product of federal government agricultural policy in the 1970's – is so entrenched that consumers must expend considerable effort to acquire nutritious food on their own and they must demand policy changes to enhance the public's health as a counter force to the food industry. Such changes are not rocket science, nor do they require gobs of nutrition research. Making the U.S. diet healthy is a matter of will.

Prominent nutrition researchers have proposed (References 2 and 3 below) the following policy changes to promote a healthier food supply that would improve diet quality, prevent disease, and enhance well-being.

 With experts Rosanne DiZazzo-Miller and Fredrick D. Pociask

Every few years the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) publishes an executive summary of a Practice Analysis to ensure that the Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) exams cover content relevant to practicing therapists. In addition to any changes to the content of the COTA exam, they may also make changes to the percentage of the exam that is dedicated to each domain area. Beginning in 2019, the NBCOT board COTA exam will include these changes. The good news is our textbook, Preparing for the Occupational Therapy Assistant National Board Exam: 45 Days and Counting, included our own focus groups and interviews, including: students who passed the NBCOT exam on the first attempt, students who had to repeat the exam, and had currently practicing senior level occupational therapists to construct the majority of chapter content. Therefore, the content presented in the 45 Days textbook remains in very good alignment with the changes included in the 2018 executive summary. The free PDF of the 2018 ‘Practice Analysis of the Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant Executive Summary’ can be found here.

Summary of Changes/Additions:

With experts Rosanne DiZazzo-Miller and Fredrick D. Pociask

Every few years the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) publishes an executive summary of a Practice Analysis to ensure that Occupational Therapist Registered (OTR) exams cover content relevant to practicing therapists. In addition to any changes to the content of the OTR exam, they may also make changes to the percentage of the exam that is dedicated to each domain area. Beginning in 2019, the NBCOT board OTR exam will include these changes. The good news is our textbook, Preparing for the Occupational Therapy National Board Exam: 45 Days and Counting, included our own focus groups and interviews, including: students who passed the NBCOT exam on the first attempt, students who had to repeat the exam, and had currently practicing senior level occupational therapists to construct the majority of chapter content. Therefore, the content presented in the 45 Days textbook remains in very good alignment with the changes included in the 2018 executive summary. The free PDF of the 2018 ‘Practice Analysis of the Occupational Therapist Registered Executive Summary’ can be found here.

Summary of Changes/Additions:

We recently asked Ann W. Kummer, author of Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Conditions: A Comprehensive Guide to Clinical Management, Fourth Edition, for her expertise in diagnosing a nasal emission. 

Great news-- Advanced Medical Nutrition Therapy by Kelly Kane and Kathy Prelack recently received a 5-star review. According to Taylor Durkin, BS, from the University of Chicago Medical Center, writing for Doody's Review Service,