SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY GRADUATE PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF
COMMUNICATION
SCIENCES AND DISORDERS
Choosing Purdue Fort Wayne.
The graduate program in speech-language pathology at Purdue Fort Wayne prepares students for a career as an SLP across a range of clinical settings from birth-to-three centers, public schools, acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and everything in between.
We aim for a class size of 16 students each year which means that students get to know their fellow classmates well. The small class size also means faculty will get to know each and every student. The program has seven full time faculty members and two part time faculty who teach graduate courses. Faculty have a wide range of experiences to share with students including clinical work through First Steps, public schools, ABA therapy, skilled nursing facilities, acute care hospitals, and outpatient clinics. Faculty members also have active research projects investigating topics such as developing new evaluation procedures for motor speech disorders in adults, understanding how language changes as we age, and best practices for assessing language impairments in children.
As a graduate student, you’ll complete clinical practicum experiences in our on-campus Communication Disorders Clinic as well as at off campus sites, including our partnerships with GiGi’s Playhouse and Early Childhood Alliance where students provide speech-language services at off-campus locations under the supervision of PFW faculty. In the last year of the program students also complete two off-campus externship experiences one in a healthcare setting and one in a school setting.
To ensure ethical professional conduct, our students and faculty are expected to adhere to the ASHA code of Ethics.
Course Sequence
Take the right classes at the right time.
The graduate program begins in the summer semester. The exact summer schedule varies each year, depending on the Purdue Fort Wayne calendar. Typically, classes start the last week of June and continue into the first week of August—usually with a two-week break before the fall semester begins.
The program is structured to be completed in six semesters of continuous full-time enrollment. Part-time study is not possible because many of the courses are taught in an integrated fashion.
The curriculum for the M.S. in speech-language pathology is based on a cohort model in which students take the required courses in a set curriculum. Adhering to the specified sequence of courses is essential because each semester (expect for summer semesters), students enroll in one critical thinking course which emphasizes the integration of the knowledge and skills being learned in the other required courses that semester. To successfully participate in, and benefit from, those critical thinking courses, students must be enrolled in the full structured set of co-requisite courses each semester.
- CSD 50500: Evidence Based Practice in Speech-Language Pathology (2 credits)
- CSD 54300: Clinical Methods in Speech-Language Pathology (2 credits)
- CSD 54900: Clinical Practice in Speech/Language Pathology (1 credit)
- CSD 51200: Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice 1 (4 credits)
- CSD 52100: Speech Sound Disorders in Children (2 credits)
- CSD 52300: Language Disorders in Children (2 credits)
- CSD 52600: Language and Literacy Disorders (2 credits)
- CSD 54400: School Based Speech-Language Pathology (2 credits)
- CSD 54900: Clinical Practice in Speech/Language Pathology (2 credits)
- CSD 51300: Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice 2 (4 credits)
- CSD 53100: Language and Cognitive Communication Disorders in Adults (2 credits)
- CSD 53300: Medical Speech-Language Pathology (2 credits)
- CSD 53800: Motor Disorders of Speech (2 credits)
- CSD 53900: Deglutition and Dysphagia (2 credits)
- CSD 54900: Clinical Practice in Speech/Language Pathology (3 credits)
- CSD 54000: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (2 credits)
- CSD 54900: Clinical Practice in Speech/Language Pathology (4 credits)
- CSD 51400: Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice 3 (2 credits)
- CSD 52900: Stuttering: Nature, Diagnosis, and Treatment (2 credits)
- CSD 64800: Speech-Language Pathology Education Externship (4 credits) or
- CSD 64900: Speech-Language Pathology Healthcare Externship (4 credits)
- CSD 51500: Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice 4 (2 credits)
- CSD 53200: Voice Disorders (2 credits)
- CSD 54500: Licensure (0 credits)
- CSD 64800: Speech-Language Pathology Education Externship (5 credits) or
- CSD 64900: Speech-Language Pathology Healthcare Externship (5 credits)
Students will take either CSD 64800 or 64900 in the fall of year two and then take the other externship course in the spring of year two.
Transfer credits cannot be used to meet any degree requirements. Even if a student has previously completed a course they believe is comparable to one required in the program, all degree requirements must be completed while a graduate student at Purdue Fort Wayne. Due to the integrative nature of the program and the fact that many professional certification standards are taught throughout multiple courses in the curriculum, the department requires all students to take all courses at Purdue Fort Wayne in order to ensure all professional certification standards are met.
Additional details about the graduation requirements for the program can be found in the Purdue Fort Wayne Graduate Catalog.
Licensure
The details.
If you successfully complete the graduate program and receive a passing score on the ETS Praxis exam in Speech-Language Pathology, you will be eligible to complete the clinical fellowship experience which is the last step to becoming an ASHA certified SLP. ASHA has other requirements related to disclosing any prior legal convictions or other sanctions one has had. The full description of all requirements for obtaining ASHA certification as a speech-language pathologist, which is referred to as the CCC-SLP credential, can be found on the ASHA Certification website.
Once you successfully complete the graduate program, receive a passing score on the Praxis exam, and receive a passing score on the jurisprudence examination covering the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Statute in the state of Indiana, you will be eligible to be licensed for the clinical fellowship year as a speech-language pathologist (provided you pass the state’s criminal background check and complete all application materials).
At this time Purdue University Fort Wayne has not determined whether the Speech-Language Pathology program meets state licensure requirements in states other than Indiana. For more details, see ASHA’s state-by-state information about all 50 states’ Speech-Language-Hearing Association licensing agencies, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Contact Us
Have questions?
Contact the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at [email protected] or 260-481-6410.