The B.A. program is a pre-professional degree with specialized coursework that prepares students to work with speech-language and hearing disabled children and adults in a variety of settings, including the public schools, hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers and private practice. College teaching and research are also career possibilities.
Students in the communication sciences and disorders (CSD) major complete foundational coursework in audiology, speech-language pathology, normal language acquisition, anatomy and physiology, and phonetics. In addition, students complete advanced courses in language and phonological disorders, organic disorders, speech science, clinical methods and aural rehabilitation. Elective courses may be selected from the areas of physical sciences and mathematics, psychology, linguistics, and basic human communication.
All B.A. students observe and participate in therapy sessions at the WSU Speech and Language Clinics, taught by instructors whose research and clinical experiences make them experts in their subject areas.
Undergraduate students in this specialization should note that graduate study is required for clinical certification by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). A master's degree is required for speech-language pathologists and a doctoral degree is required for audiologists. Study in this major at the undergraduate level provides a scientific foundation for graduate study in both audiology and speech-language pathology as well as other science and health professions.
Important: Completion of the B.A. degree at Wayne State does not imply automatic admission to one of its graduate programs in CSD.
All places in the graduate programs are filled on a competitive basis. However, the courses taken for the B.A. degree in CSD at Wayne State also fulfill the prerequisite requirements for other graduate CSD programs throughout the U.S. and Canada. For a listing of programs, see ASHA's EdFind service.