Health Sciences

About Our Program

Speech and hearing sciences emphasizes the physiological, neurological, behavioral, and psychological dimensions of normal and disordered communication across the lifespan.

The Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences offers programs leading to a bachelor of arts in speech and hearing sciences and a master of arts in speech and hearing sciences in speech-language pathology.

Training in speech and hearing sciences through the bachelor's level degree is considered a pre-professional degree. State and national clinical and educational certifications require completion of the master's degree.

Graduate students are prepared as speech-language pathologists to provide direct and consultative services in educational and medical settings.

Academic Strengths

  • Students have opportunities to work with well-known scholars and master clinicians on current research and clinical innovations.
  • State-of-the-art equipment enables students to experience cutting-edge applications in clinic and laboratory technology.
  • Low faculty-student ratios ensure individual attention, close supervision, academic innovation, and excellence.
  • The quality of our undergraduate program is reflected in part in the most recent data (2011), which reveals that 31 percent of Speech and Hearing Sciences (SHS) undergraduate majors were named to the President's Honor Roll in one or both semesters, 38 percent of SHS undergraduate majors graduated with honors, and 87 percent of SHS undergraduate majors students passed their WSU Writing Portfolio requirements, exceeding the all WSU campus pass rate of 82 percent.
  • Our graduate program in speech-language pathology is accredited nationally by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and recognized at the state level by the Washington State Board of Education.

Special Features of the Department

The faculty and program are recognized for strengths in:

  • Cross-cultural issues in clinical service delivery.
  • Treatment of central auditory processing disorder and speech problems resulting from autism, motor-speech disorders, and dysphagia (swallowing disorders).

See the faculty experts page for more on our faculty research strengths.

We are committed to increasing cultural diversity within our program and take particular pride in our Native Americans in Communication Disorders training project which, for over a decade, has continued to provide students of American Indian heritage with financial, educational, and social support necessary for professional preparation as speech-language pathologists and audiologists.

Our National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NSSLHA) organization sponsors a series of activities to bring faculty and students together in informal gatherings. Every year, NSSLHA sponsors a conference featuring regional experts in the field of speech and hearing sciences.

Read more about our program »

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