My name is Vanessa Smith.  I’m a speech-language pathologist and doctoral student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders department at Penn State University.  I’m specializing in augmentative and alternative communication in neurogenic populations, particularly with an eye toward counseling and quality of life issues.

The reason I’m emailing you is that I’m trying to put together a small study focusing on strategies for counseling persons with ALS who use AAC.  What I’d ideally like to do is to find professionals with experience in this area.  As you can probably imagine, there are not many people who make this their specialty.  Thus far I haven’t had much success in finding anyone who does counseling work with person with complex communication needs, let alone someone who has worked with persons with acquired disorders.

While I’m not in the formal recruiting stages of the study yet, I’m trying to get a sense of whether there are enough people out there – or any people out there –  to interview.  That’s where I’d like to ask for your help.

I wonder if I could ask you to let me know if you or someone you know has had experience in counseling persons with ALS who use AAC.  This wouldn’t necessarily need to be in a strictly psychology/psychiatry vein. I am interested in talking to anyone potentially in a counseling role, including SLPs and other allied health professionals.  Alternatively, if you know someone who might have a lead, please feel free to forward this email or my contact information to him or her.  I can be reached at this email address (vcs112@xxxxxxx) or by phone at (413) 841-4505.

Thanks so much for your time.  I hope this email finds you well.

Sincerely,

Vanessa

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Vanessa C. Smith, M.S., CCC-SLP

Doctoral Student, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Pennsylvania State University

404B Ford Building

vcs112@xxxxxxx  ||  (413) 841-4505