The College of Health and Human Services offers an undergraduate major in Communication Disorders that provides a preprofessional education in speech-language pathology, audiology, and related areas. The curriculum includes courses in fundamental areas necessary to understand normal aspects of speech, language, and hearing. Course work also provides the student with basic knowledge concerning disorders of speech, language, and hearing and approaches to their assessment and remediation. Education at this level is considered prerequisite to a graduate degree program.
Program Outcomes
Upon completion of the undergraduate program in communication disorders, students will be able to:
- Describe and explain the anatomy, physiology, and neurology of the normal processes of speech, language, hearing and swallowing.
- Describe and explain the acoustic and psychoacoustic bases and characteristics of normal speech production and perception.
- Phonetically transcribe American English, including its regional and cultural variations.
- Explain the roles of linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic (including dialectal, cultural, and economic) factors that influence stages and characteristics of normal communication development and behavior.
- Explain the effects of dialectal, social, economic, ethnic, and cultural influences on communication behavior.
- Describe the major communicative characteristics of individuals with disorders of articulation, language, voice, fluency, and hearing.
- Assess, at a fundamental level, communication behaviors of individuals with disorders of speech, language, and hearing.
- Design elementary intervention strategies, using a variety of input modalities, for individuals with communication disorders.
Undergraduate Certification
As a preprofessional curriculum, the undergraduate major does not qualify students for state licensure and national certification, but rather provides the foundation necessary for the graduate curriculum which leads to professional credentialing. The student will meet the university’s general education requirements for the Professional Educator License endorsed in Non-Teaching Speech-Language Pathology. Refer to the Teacher Licensure section of this catalog for requirements for licensure through approved programs, professional education requirements, and general education requirements that must be met.
The program in Communication Disorders is designed to serve both part-time and full-time students.
For further information, or an appointment with an advisor, call the Program Office at 708.534.4590.
Special Admission Requirements
In addition to meeting university admission criteria, applicants must have a grade point average (G.P.A.) of at least 2.75 for the last 60 hours of undergraduate course work attempted. Applicants who do not have the required G.P.A. may petition for an exception.
