Let's Break it Down

Here's What is Inside the CSE Course... 

• Chapter 1: Introduction This modules addresses the limitations of the CSE and discusses how acute care has shaped clinical dysphagia assessments. Understand why so much of what we were taught doesn't translate to community practice, and what to do about it.

• Chapter 2: The Case History  Learn how to use the case history as a clinical tool, not just a checklist. Understand the goals of a case history beyond gathering a detailed medical history. The goals of a case history are multifactorial and other equally important goals, are also discussed.

• Chapter 3: Oral Motor Examinations This covers oral health and cranial nerve exams. It will go through validated tools you can use and will address how cranial nerve findings translate into functional swallowing impairments (video demonstrations to be added soon).

• Chapter 4: Assessing Individual Swallow Skills such as mastication, respiration, and more. This chapter examines the observable parameters of swallow trials, the limits of clinical inference, and what current research says about some widely used assessment techniques.

• Chapter 5: Using Clinical Tools to Assess Swallow Function Review methods and tools such as: hyo-laryngeal palpation, cervical auscultation, and pulse oximetry: what they're designed to do, how they're being used in practice, and what current literature tells us about their clinical utility.

• Chapter 6: Interpreting Signs and Symptoms of Dysphagia and Aspiration Take a critical look at the clinical signs we've long relied on to identify penetration and aspiration: cough, wet voice, throat clearing, and others, and what the evidence actually says about their reliability. Includes a closer look at the physiology behind these responses and reference values from current literature that are worth having in your back pocket.

• Chapter 7: Published Tools A comprehensive overview of published CSE tools across four categories: screening tools, standardised assessments, patient-reported outcome measures, and severity rating scales, with a focus on critical appraisal rather than just tool familiarity. Includes a primer on sensitivity and specificity for those who want to understand not just which tool to use, but why.

• Chapter 8: Conducting Swallow Trials and Assessing the Swallow Over Mealtimes This will detail how to shift from a structured, de-contextualised assessment to one that reflects real life. This chapter covers mealtime observations and structured swallow trials, when each is appropriate, how to approach them across different community populations, and why objective data collection matters more than most clinicians realise. This chapter also addresses the contested practice of trialling thickened fluids at the bedside, and what the evidence says about it.

• Chapter 9: Goal Setting Write meaningful, measurable dysphagia goals for community-based clients in this chapter that addresses the why and how of explicit goal setting in dysphagia management. Also covers strategies for eliciting goals across a range of cognitive presentations, and matching outcome measurement tools to the goals you've set (additional content to be added soon).

• Chapter 10: Assessing Risk Move beyond aspiration as the only risk metric and examine the multifactorial nature of aspiration pneumonia risk in adults with dysphagia. Includes a review of key research frameworks and practical case studies applying them to real-world risk feeding and texture modification decisions.

• Chapter 11: Principles of Dysphagia Assessment in the Community Examines what person-centred dysphagia management actually looks like in community practice, and how it differs from acute care in ways that matter clinically. Covers least restrictive interventions, shared decision-making, carer involvement, and the kind of holistic thinking that community practice demands.

• Chapter 12: Clinical Documentation Write notes that reflect your expertise and communicate your reasoning clearly and this module that explores clinical documentation practices for community-based dysphagia assessment. Learners will examine how clear, concise, and clinically reasoned documentation supports patient outcomes, professional credibility and continuity of care. The module challenges traditional documentation habits by emphasising accurate objective reporting, cautious interpretation of bedside findings, and more precise clinical language when discussing dysphagia.

• Chapter 13: Integrating VFSS Findings Although conducting Videofluoroscopic Swallow Studies is not part of the clinical swallow evaluation, the results should be part of the overall assessment and used to create a comprehensive dysphagia management plan. This chapter is to help the community clinician: complete appropriate VFSS referrals, understand basic anatomy as per VFSS images and be familiar with the strengths and drawbacks of common VFSS tools (an additional recording on VFSS Report Writing will also be added soon)

Next Chapter to be added:

- Assessing dysphagia via telehealth (what the research actually says and how it applies to real-world contexts)

This chapter is included in your purchase at no extra cost.