Nicole Smith, MS, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and graduated from the University of South Florida with a Master's in Communication Sciences and Disorders. During her graduate program, she completed a thesis that examined the relationship between African American English and phonological processing skills. The study results were presented at the 2001 ASHA Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Nicole has worked in a variety of pediatric settings including the school system, head start programs, and pediatric home health. She currently works for one of the largest pediatric and geriatric inpatient/outpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the country. She treats children with a variety of diagnoses including meningitis, stroke, brain injury, anoxic encephalopathy, developmental delay, speech delay, autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, etc. She also works with adults with a variety of diagnoses including stroke, encephalopathy, brain injury, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, dementia, etc. She also completes on-site Modified Barium Swallow Studies with both pediatric and adult patients. She is certified in Vital Stim and Interactive Metronome. Nicole serves on the CVA committee, facilitates the monthly Brain Injury Support Group, and provides staff education for the Interactive Metronome and Gait Mate programs at the hospital. In addition to her full-time position, she works for a geriatric home health company and also has several private clients. She really enjoys the diverse patient population that she gets to work with everyday!

She has been certified in Interactive Metronome since 2006 and uses it on a daily basis with patients, both children and adults, with great success. In 2008, she became a clinical instructor for Interactive Metronome and has had the pleasure of training other professionals across the country as to the benefits of this program. She most recently contributed her knowledge and experience to the Adult Best Practices Manual for advanced training. She currently resides in Clearwater, Florida.

Target Audience:
This course welcomes:

1. Speech and Language Pathologist
2. Speech and Language Pathology Asst
3. Occupational Therapist
4. Certified Occupational Therapy Asst
5. Educator
6. Psychologist
7. Psychiatrist
8. Neurologist
9. Licensed Medical, Rehabilitation or Mental Health Professional
10. Music Therapist

Instructional Level:
Advanced

Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Review critical aspects of language and cognition and ways to identify deficits for remediation;
2. Identify appropriate patients for more advanced Interactive Metronome (IM) tasks;
3. Understand the implementation and adaptation of more complex IM tasks for remediation of cognitive-communicative deficits