I'm a speech-language pathologist & co-founder of Tactus. Tactus offers evidence-based apps for aphasia therapy and lots of free resources, articles, and education - like this newsletter. Sign up to get my updates 1-2 times a month.
🛏️ What your bedside swallow exam can tell you (that imaging can’t)
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Hello Reader, We all know that instrumental swallowing assessments like the MBSS and FEES are the gold standard for assessing anatomy and physiology, so is it even worth doing a bedside assessment? 🤔 Absolutely! Your bedside skills still matter more than you think. The clinical swallow evaluation (or CSE as it's known, since beds aren't always involved) is our first step in assessing and diagnosing dysphagia. It's how we learn how dysphagia is affecting our patient and if an instrumental assessment is necessary. 💡 The CSE involves hypothesizing, thinking critically, and connecting the dots between what we read in the chart and what we see in person. Our patients count on that detective work to guide their care. 🕵️♀️ That’s exactly why we broke it all down in our newest blog: What SLPs Need to Know: Clinical Swallow Evaluation with tools you can implement in your next assessment. 🙌 Let us guide you through the CSE in 5 practical parts, from chart review to diet recommendations. Perfect for students, new clinicians, and seasoned clinicians keeping up with the latest evidence. (That's you!) 👩💻
Get Your Clinical Swallow Exam Master Guide"This blog is great! I wish I could have all this information at hand when I'm actually doing the assessment." - every SLP
🪄 Here you go! We’ve bundled everything you need for a complete bedside assessment into one 14-page downloadable resource: the Clinical Swallow Exam Master Guide, available right inside the Virtual Rehab Center. This beautiful PDF includes 5 parts to guide each step of your CSE:
Become a member of the Tactus Virtual Rehab Center to save time and give every patient evidence-based, individualized care with: Dysphagia treatments include: 💥 Effortful Swallow 💥 Mendelsohn Maneuver 💥 2 NEW CTAR Treatments: Quick Press & Long Hold 👉 Start your 21-day free trial now and check out this growing platform. No obligation, cancel anytime. See how easy it can be to document and assign home practice! Even with the best tools, assessing swallowing without X-ray vision can be challenging. But by collecting the right data and asking the right questions, you can grow more confident in every recommendation. Keep refining, keep questioning, and keep giving your patients the best. ❤️ Megan P.S. Did you know that this blog is part of a whole series of evidence-based articles, each with its own summary handouts in the Virtual Rehab Center? 🤩 Check out the topics you've missed, and stay tuned for more: What SLPs Need to Know. |
Megan @ Tactus Therapy
I'm a speech-language pathologist & co-founder of Tactus. Tactus offers evidence-based apps for aphasia therapy and lots of free resources, articles, and education - like this newsletter. Sign up to get my updates 1-2 times a month.
If you’ve ever learned an instrument, you’ve heard: “Don’t forget to practice!” 🎷🎻Practice may not make perfect, but it does make progress. Speech therapy works the same way. Your sessions with a therapist help you learn new skills, but the real magic happens when you practice at home and use those skills in real life, like ordering coffee or chatting with friends. 💪✨ 📚 Why Practice Matters Research shows people who practice at home make bigger gains than those who only work in sessions (Des...
Hello Reader, Do your patients get the ideal amount of therapy? 🤔 Probably not, and research would agree. 📊 The Research-Practice Dosage Gap Cavanaugh (2021) compared aphasia treatment dosage in research vs real outpatient clinics: Research: median of 20 hrs over 15 sessions (≈3× per week) Reality: median of 7.5 hrs over 10 sessions (1–2× per week) That’s a 2.5× gap! 🤯 We know neuroplasticity thrives on intensity and repetition. Even the best weekly sessions can’t match what the brain needs...
Hello Reader, Remember the first time you really noticed your own swallow in school? The lift, the forward motion… it seemed simple—until you learned just how complex it actually is. 😵💫 As clinicians, we know that swallowing is anything but simple. Fortunately, we have many tools at our disposal, and advances in technology are making it easier than ever to apply them effectively. 👉 In case you missed it, our latest blog breaks down the major dysphagia exercises, the research behind them, and...