Dr. Alfano is a bilingual speech-language pathologist and LSLS Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist with over 21 years of clinical experience. In addition to attending both children and adults at The Alfano Center, she is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Florida International University where she has been teaching since 2010.
A Miami native, born to Cuban parents, Dr. Alfano earned both her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from the Florida State University (where she was named the 2018 Distinguished Alumni for the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders) and her Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning from the University of Miami. She has worked in a variety of settings that include a pediatric hospital, private practice, and the Miami-Dade County Public School System. Her research foci include culture and communication issues in Hispanic-Deaf families, the speech and language development of bilingual children with cochlear implants, and test development and adaptation in Spanish for children with hearing loss. Read Dr. Alfano's doctoral thesis, "Culture and Communication: Implications for Hispanic Mothers with Deaf Children,". She is also a mentor for professionals interested in becoming certified LSL Specialists and mentors professionals in several different continents.
She is trained and certified in many different therapeutic techniques, including being an AG Bell's Listening and Spoken Language Specialist Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist, PROMPT, Beckman Oral Motor, Asanas for Autism and Special Needs, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.
Dr. Alfano has presented her work at the local, state, national, and international levels, including Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Spain. Presentation topics include "Speech and Language Production in Bilingual Children with Hearing Loss", "Development of the CASP-S", "Introductorio a la Terapia Auditivo Verbal", “Deafness: A Multicultural Case Study”, “Assessment and Treatment Options for Bilinguals”, “Bilingualism Myths”, and “Language Development in Bilingual Adolescents with Hearing Loss”.
Dr. Alfano has published several papers and test assessments including Facilitating Preliteracy Development in Children With Hearing Loss When the Home Language Is Not English, Communication Between Spanish-Speaking Mothers and Their Children With Hearing Loss Who Use ASL, The APT/HI-S: Prueba de percepion auditiva para personas con discapacidad auditiva, and the Open- & Closed-set Task - Spanish.
She currently holds and has held several professional positions including: Vice President for Communications for the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists & Audiologists (FLASHA), Co-Chair of the Education Program for the AG Bell Convention for 2020, Steering Committee member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's (ASHA) Special Interest Division 14-Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Populations; and Chair, Committee for Membership Development for Special Interest Division 14. She is also a field examiner for Pearson, Janelle Publications, Western Psychological Services, Super Duper Publications, The Psychological Corporation, Pro-ed, and Academic Therapy Publications.
research interests
Communication Disorders; Language Acquisition and Disorders; Communication Development ; Language Development; Physiology of Speech; Communication and Culture
