Phonetics

The course covers how the sounds of American English are produced and perceived, the influence of context on sound production, and suprasegmental aspects of speech. The course introduces the students to transcription with the International Phonetic Alphabet and provides opportunities to practice transcription.

Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Swallowing Mechanisms

This course will cover the anatomy and physiology of the speech mechanism, with specific reference to the structures and processes involved in respiration, phonation, articulation, swallowing, and resonance.  The components of the nervous system that are involved in the control of the speech mechanism will be covered as well.

Introduction to Language Disorders

A review of the nature of human language. The course focuses on the acquistion of language in normally developing children and also describes the nature of language disorders assessment techniques, and intervention strategies.

The Nature and Development of Language

This course will provide an introduction to the nature of language. It will describe the nature of communication and the components of language. It will also describe milestones in the development of syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics and discourse. Preliteracy and literacy skills will be discussed. Topics on dialectal and language variation will also be included. Training in the analysis of language samples obtained from normally developing children will be provided.

The Science and Measurement of Hearing

This course will cover the physical characteristics of sound and its measurements, the basic acoustics of speech, and the anatomy and physiology of peripheral and central auditory mechanisms. Basic test procedures for the estimation of air-conduction and bone conduction thesholds, the assessment of middle ear function, and speech comprehension will be covered as well.

Auditory Rehabilitation

Discusses the ramifications of hearing loss as they pertain to both the pediatric and adult populations. Diagnostic techniques, amplification systems, and therapy strategies, as they relate to both auditory habilitation and rehabilitation, are presented. Finally, counseling and educational needs are considered for each population.

Clinical Methods

Through weekly seminars this course exposes the student to all aspects of the speech-language clinical process.

Clinical Observation Lab

This course provides supervised observation of speech and language therapy necessary to begin clinical practicum. Students meet in weekly seminars to discuss their observations.