Graduate Programs in Speech-Language Pathology

Recent research has shown that graduate programs in speech-language pathology are not providing any or enough coursework or clinical training opportunities in the area of written language (literacy) for their graduate students.

There is no question that fitting literacy into an already overstuffed set of requirements is tough, but there are ways to fit it in and adequately prepare our future SLPs to serve struggling readers and writers.

As a real-life example, Dr. Katz developed and directed the ROWing Clinic, a successful and high-quality literacy clinic in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University. In concert with teaching a yearly course on school-age language disorders with substantial attention to both oral and written language, she also directly supervised graduate students rotating through the ROWing Clinic. Many of these students have gone on to become experts in assessment and treatment of written language disorders.

As another real-life example, with her expertise in literacy and her position as Associate Director at the University Center for the Development of Language and Literacy (UCLL), Dr. Pierson has worked closely with graduate programs in speech-language pathology in order to place and provide graduate students with clinical training in the area of written language.

Drs. Katz and Pierson have much to offer in the way of advising faculty and clinical staff on integrating written language content into the classroom and clinic curricula for the benefit of the graduate programs themselves, their graduate students, and the countless number of individuals with literacy disorders who will be able to receive the help that they need.

 


For more information, please contact us.