Communication Sciences and Disorders Minor

FACULTY:
Joan Furey, Chair
Donald Goldberg
 

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Communication Sciences and Disorders is a discipline that has evolved from hearing, speech, and language sciences research and the clinical endeavor of assessing, diagnosing, and treating those with communicative disorders. Knowledge, theories, and tools have been integrated from those sciences as well as the life sciences (human anatomy and physiology), linguistics, physics (acoustics and psychoacoustics), psychology (developmental and clinical psychology), and sociology/anthropology (sociolinguistics). The major in the Communication Sciences and Disorders track includes courses in the discipline itself, cognate courses that are selected from related disciplines, and the clinic practicum. The curriculum provides the student with an understanding of normal and abnormal human speech, language, and hearing. The curriculum and supervised clinic practica of the major contribute to this understanding, and courses in the major are taught from these perspectives: 1) the evolutionary biolinguistic capacity of humans for using language for communication; 2) the principles of human development and maturation from biologic, anthropologic, psychosocial, and communicative perspectives; 3) the causes, effects, assessment, and treatment of those with communicative disorders; 4) the opportunities for experiential learning through participation in the activities of the Freedlander Speech and Hearing Clinic. When combined with the required research methodology course, the major may prepare the qualified student for graduate or professional study.