MA in Speech-Language Pathology Curriculum
MA- SLP Specific Learning Objectives
Upon completion of a Masters degree, students will demonstrate core functions of a starting clinician along the three prongs of evidence-based practice: client/family values, clinician expertise, and research evidence.
Client/family values
Approach practice in a holistic, client/family-centered way, including:
- Communicate appropriately with vested parties, including the client, the family, and the community
- Collaborate with interpreters
- Write goals that are specific to the needs and living situation of the client/family
- Select therapy methods that are specific to the needs and living situation of the client/family; offering options to the client/family (i.e. informed consent)
Include vested parties in decisions
- Apply models of health and ability to the values and lived experience of clients
- Identify systems of care appropriate for the client/family
- Design accommodations that are client-centered and appropriate to the client's community
Clinical Expertise
Apply understanding of principles of speech, language, and communication broadly in clinical practice
- Consider both neurocognitive and developmental models in interpreting client behavior
Identify scopes of practice for SLPs and related allied health professions to refer clients and families appropriately
- Implement interprofessional information exchange and therapy collaboration with appropriate health professionals.
Collaborate with interpreters to ensure accurate and appropriate clinical services
- Identify and follow standards of professional behavior in the workplace
Research Evidence
Identify clinical questions, find evidence-based answers to those questions, and integrate appropriate research evidence in treatment
- Integrate research evidence with client/family values, systems of care, and clinician skills to provide individualized therapy
Articulate and apply frameworks of practice, including:
- Identify assessment questions and administer tools to best describe and diagnose clients
- Apply frameworks and techniques of intervention that are most appropriate and expedient for specific clients
- Understand and consider hierarchies of care
- Respond to integrated challenges
- Identify and target functional skills
Typical Course Sequence*
First Year
Fall
- SLHS 530, Neuropathologies and Neurosubstrates of Speech and Language
- SLHS 610, Phonological Processes
- SLHS 615, Evaluation Processes
- SLHS 631, Language Disorders in Children 1
- SLHS 698A, Professional Seminar
- students will be registered for 3 credits of clinical practicum in our in-house clinic. Students should expect this to take the equivalent of two calendar days per week
Spring
- SLHS 580, Cognitive Bases of Language
- SLHS 624, Motor Speech Disorders
- SLHS 632, Language Disorders in Children 1
- SLHS 691D, Dysphagia
- SLHS 698A, Professional Seminar
- students will be registered for 3 credits of clinical practicum in our in-house clinic**. Students should expect this to take the equivalent of two calendar days per week
Summer
- 3 credits of summer clinic is typical, but not required
Second Year
Fall
- SLHS 611, Fluency and Craniofacial Disorders
- SLHS 613, Language Disorders in Adults 1
- SLHS 620, Counseling
- SLHS 698B, Professional Seminar
- students will be registered for 3 credits of clinical practicum in a community placement. Students should expect this to take the equivalent of four calendar days per week
Spring
- SLHS 591C, Alternative and Augmentative Communication
- SLHS 614, Language Disorders in Adults 2
- SLHS 612, Voice Disorders
- SLHS 698B, Professional Seminar
- students will be registered for 3 credits of clinical practicum in a community placement. Students should expect this to take the equivalent of four calendar days per week
* This is a typical schedule. Changes and substitutions might need to be made in any given semester
** Students who enter the program with accrued hours might leave campus early.