The curriculum of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders combines
a rigorous mixture of academic courses and clinical education in order to prepare
its students for a wide range of careers, from clinicians to scholars. Our overarching
goals are:
- Students will demonstrate the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and
dispositions necessary to prevent and diagnose disorders of communication across the
lifespan.
- Students will demonstrate the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and
dispositions necessary to treat disorders of communication across the lifespan.
- Students will demonstrate informed clinical judgments through innovatve evidence-based
practices that honor and respect cultural, linguistic and individual diversity.
- Students will commit to pre-professional growth by demonstrating the implementation
of ethical and informed practices that respond to changing populations and scope of
practice demands.
The four student learning outcomes are supported by the following academic and clinic
goals.
Our academic goals are to prepare specialists who:
- Understand the basic process of human communication based upon knowledge in the physical,
social, and cognitive sciences.
- Understand the nature of disorders of human communication.
- Understand the basic principles underlying prevention, evaluation, and management
of those disorders.
- Apply those principles within a reflective decision-making process for the provision
of clinical services of the highest quality.
- Understand technology as a tool through which quality services can be facilitated.
- Apply knowledge gained for a dynamic curriculum so as to function within interdisciplinary
context across settings with persons from diverse backgrounds.
- Are competent consumers, users, and producers of applied research.
- Are committed to continuing education and professional development.
The purpose of clinical education is to provide opportunities for observation and
supervised clinical practice with a diverse clinical population. The ASHA Code of Ethics (PDF) serves as the conceptual foundation for service delivery.
The clinical education goals of the program are to prepare competent clinicians who:
- Plan and administer a variety of diagnostic procedures.
- Interpret diagnostic results and design intervention there from.
- Implement treatment procedures reflecting knowledge of an individual’s communication
competence and different service delivery models.
- Manage administrative aspects of case management in a variety of settings including
oral and written reporting, scheduling, record keeping, corresponding, etc.
- Interact effectively with clients representing diverse backgrounds, other individuals
within their communication system, and allied professionals.
- Initiate and regulate their own ongoing professional development.
- Are ethically and socially aware of issues affecting the profession as a context addressing
larger issues of practice in the community and the world.