About
Do you want to help people cope with speech-related disorders? Do you have knowledge of speech and hearing sciences?
A background of undergraduate courses in speech and hearing sciences is essential to your path to earning an MS in communication sciences and disorders. If you do not have an undergraduate degree in the field, specific undergraduate courses must be taken prior to formally beginning the MS degree sequence.
Both face-to-face and online coursework is present in the degree. In addition to traditional classroom and online instruction, you will complete both part-time and full-time clinical internships. Typically, a student will graduate with a minimum of 400 clinical clock hours of experience.
The department also offers a three-year, full-time master's degree through a distance education program. We consider the distance-education program a "distance education" program, not an "online" program. Your lectures are online, but there are classes that require library research, activities in the community (service learning), and observations at health-care facilities, for example. Some classes require group work and assist you with having "cyber meetings" with your classmates.
As a speech-language pathologist, you could work with people who have a variety of speech-related disorders. These disorders can include the inability to produce speech sounds or produce them clearly; speech rhythm and fluency problems, such as stuttering; voice quality problems, such as inappropriate pitch or harsh voice; problems understanding and producing language; and cognitive communication impairments, such as attention, memory and problem solving disorders. They also work with people who have swallowing difficulties.
ECU Advantage
The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders has gained national attention in groundbreaking research. Our faculty's findings have led to the development of devices and methods that have made a difference for people living with speech-language conditions.
The College of Allied Health Sciences is the largest university-based allied-health provider in the state of North Carolina. The college has eight departments: Addictions and Rehabilitation Studies, Biostatistics, Clinical Laboratory Science, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Health Services and Information Management, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant Studies, and offers degrees on the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels.
Delivering a comprehensive professional education that will prepare allied-health graduates to make a difference in the health of the region, state, and nation was the primary reason for the creation of the College of Allied Health Sciences and its departments. Fueled by the growth and aging of our population, the demand for these highly skilled specialists is expected to greatly increase as health care continues to be a priority for our citizens.
What You Will Study
There is no catalog data for this program.