I welcome this opportunity to provide exciting news about the program in Communication Sciences & Disorders (CSD) at Missouri State University, where prospects for our department and our students have never been better. First, we are the only program in Missouri, and one of only a few in the nation, with nationally accredited programs in Speech-Language Pathology, Audiology, and Education of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing. With outstanding faculty in all three disciplines, students are provided with experiences that cover a wide range of disorders affecting normal communication processes. Ongoing group treatment programs for individuals with head-injuries, preschool children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and preschool and school-age children with language disorders are only a few of the programs offered to provide students with outstanding opportunities to develop their clinical skills. The Springfield community offers our students clinical experiences in acute care and rehabilitative hospital settings, skilled nursing facilities, Ear, Nose, and Throat medical practices, and elementary and secondary school settings.
Our faculty and students are actively involved in research projects. In audiology, ongoing faculty and student research projects address issues of elderly adult aural rehabilitation, universal neonatal hearing screening, otoacoustic emissions, psychoacoustic aspects of binaural auditory processing and advanced studies in evoked potentials. In the area of speech-language pathology, areas of specialization and interest include motor-speech disorders, disorders of swallowing, phonological disorders, fluency disorders, and disorders of voice. More effective teaching methodologies are being developed through research efforts in the program for teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.
CSD at Missouri State continues to grow. Our laboratories include an acoustics laboratory, vestibular laboratory with dynamic platform posturography and ENG/VNG, amplification research laboratory, listening and video laboratory, motor speech laboratory, alternative/augmentative laboratory, literacy laboratory, as well as a home-simulation area for training of families of deaf infants and toddlers.
We continue to grow academically, as well. Our newest program, Doctor of Audiology has graduated three classes of AuD students and presently has students completing their clinical experiences in large Children's Hospitals, Veterans Hospitals, private practices, and educational settings in the region and in the greater mid-west. The Au.D. program holds Accreditation status from the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. These changes, along with ongoing advancements, allow the CSD department at Missouri State to help set the pace regarding identification and treatment of disorders affecting human communication.
Finally, with regard to curriculum, please take time to view the web page www.missouristate.edu/csd for our course offerings and faculty research areas. We believe that the opportunities for education in communication disorders rivals and exceeds those offered in larger urban areas. Our unique setting in southwest Missouri allows us to work with individuals from rural areas in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
If anyone viewing these pages has any questions or comments regarding any of the material presented here, please e-mail me at neildisarno@missouristate.edu or call me at 417-836-5368. I look forward to hearing from you and assisting you with your education and training in the field of Communication Sciences & Disorders.
Neil J. DiSarno, Ph.D.