Member Spotlight: National Association for Hearing and Speech Action

By Theo Smith, Associate, Marketing & Communications  

For millions of Americans, the simple act of communicating can be difficult. Significant numbers of people from the very young to the elderly struggle with speech, hearing, and swallowing. Such difficulties can hold them back socially, academically, and in the workplace. 

The National Association for Hearing and Speech Action (NAHSA) is the consumer affiliate of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Its goal is to educate the public about communication disorders, often sharing what the warning signs are, how to best manage them, and where to find professional help. 

In doing so, NAHSA draws regularly from the expertise of ASHA, a national professional, scientific, and credentialing association that has more than 211,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel; and students. 

Examples of outreach NAHSA supports are the Identify the Signs campaign and the Healthy Communication and Popular Technology Initiative. The former educates the public about the warning signs of communication disorders so that they see the signs and seek professional help as early as possible. The Initiative educates the public about the potential risk to speech and language development and hearing from unsafe use of popular technology. The World Health Organization estimates that more than one billion young people are at risk of noise-induced hearing loss in part from unsafe use of technology. In its outreach, NAHSA regularly provides an easy way for patients and family caregivers to find a qualified audiologist or speech-language pathologist through the ASHA ProFind.  

NAHSA regularly collaborates with other organizations to widen the public reach of important health information. A proud member of the National Health Council (NHC), it welcomes queries from interested parties and opportunities to work with others for the sake of educating, informing, and empowering all Americans to achieve and enjoy communication health. 

For more information about the National Association for Hearing and Speech Action, visit their website.  

For information on joining the NHC, contact Bob Scott, NHC’s Associate Director, Membership & Operations.