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Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
slhs@umn.edu
612-624-7586
slhs@umn.edu
612-624-7586
Prospective Students
Letter from the Director of Graduate Studies
Welcome to the Graduate Programs in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences. We are a community of award-winning scholars and clinicians who proudly serve at the local, state, national, and international levels.
At the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, we offer the following graduate degrees:
- Master of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology (M.A.)
- Doctorate of Audiology (Au.D.)
- Doctor of Philosophy in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences (Ph.D.)
- Joint Au.D./Ph.D programming
Master's and Doctoral Students have many opportunities to work closely with faculty in all aspects of research, teaching, and clinical service delivery. Our faculty has a wide range of expertise involving both basic and applied science. We believe that learning is best supported in a collaborative environment and encourage our students to study on both deep and broad levels. Our shared philosophy has assisted both our students and faculty in a high level of success in publication and grant activities.
Students who are interested in graduate-level programs that focus on clinical certification and licensure in speech-language-pathology or audiology will find our programs to be rich in both classroom and clinical placement opportunities. Those interested in the Ph.D. will discover an environment that is interdisciplinary and engaging.
We are pleased that you are interested in our graduate program and look forward to answering any of your additional questions.
Applying for Graduate School?
Research
Center for Cognitive and Social Processes in Language
Language is a fundamental and powerful human characteristic. At the same time, the ways in which language is acquired, develops, and sometimes breaks down present a perplexing and controversial puzzle. Three instances of language learning, spoken language development and disabilities, literacy, and bilingual language acquisition are traditionally treated as non-overlapping research and professional domains. The Center takes the perspective that this conventional heuristic is theoretically counterintuitive, leading to less informed research and professional practice. Rather, we believe that these three areas directly inform one another across the life span. Our interdisciplinary framework is that language (in all its forms) is a cognitive capability that emerges throughout the life span in the context of social interaction. Our aim is to advance broader cognitive-linguistic theories of language learning.
Early Childhood Behavior Project
Since 1992, the Early Childhood Behavior Project has successfully developed and evaluated a training and technical assistance model which addresses challenging behavior. As a result of these efforts, over 25 teams in urban and rural areas in seven states have been equipped to address the needs of young children who either currently engage or have a propensity to engage in challenging behavior.
Our training has focused on preparing educators and family members to conduct functional behavioral assessment and to implement positive behavioral support. This has included linking assessment results to proactive interventions, designing effective instructional environments, facilitating social interaction, and teaching functional communication skills. The training format that we have used includes onsite workshops, training via interactive television, online instruction, and development of individual technical assistance teams.
While learning to talk seems easy for most children, some children struggle with
learning to talk. It seems that children learn more easily if their parents and
others in their homes talk with them a lot. And some children have difficulty
because they can’t hear their parents talking. We are interested in finding out
more about how children learn to talk so we can figure out better ways of
helping children who have difficulty.
NeuroCognitive Communication Lab
Dr. Kennedy runs the NeuroCognitive Communication Lab. Through the NCCL, she does research in three areas: 1) the assessment of cognitive, communication and academic issues of individuals with brain injury; 2) the intervention for cognitive, communication and academic issues of individuals with brain injury, and 3) systematic reviews in cognitive rehabilitation for translation into best practice for rehabilitation clinicians. She runs the College Program for Students with Brain Injury, which provides supported education to students using a coaching model of dynamic instruction.
Professor Schlauch’s laboratory addresses a wide range of topics, including auditory attention, loudness, speech perception, and diagnostic audiology. Professor Schlauch enjoys introducing students to research and the publications process. Visit this site to learn more about these projects and to see a list of publications with current and former students.
As a part of the University of Minnesota's Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, our lab group seeks to understand the experience of listeners with hearing loss.
In particular, we focus on describing the changes in perception that listeners experience when hearing speech in fluctuating background noise.
The overall goal of research in the Zhang Lab is to characterize brain plasticity across the life span and define more clearly what the neural signature markers are for normal and pathological development of speech and language. An integrative approach is pursued: (a) "top-down" brain imaging in high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), integrated with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and functional MRI (fMRI), which quantifies regional temporal and spatial details and cross-region interactions for different levels of information processing and performance, and (b) "bottom-up" construction by investigating specific aspects of brain functions/dysfunctions in neural coding and computational modeling, which allows a detailed examination of the language input and learning mechanisms that make the sonic and optical experiences uniquely human in service of communicative functions.
The NeuroCognitive Communication Lab examines the language, cognitive, and
social skills of persons with cognitive-communication disorders as a result
of acquired brain injury.
Recent efforts have focused
on identifying and differentiating conditions in which adults with traumatic
brain injury (TBI) are able and unable to accurately self-regulate (monitoring
and strategy decisions) their own performance (e.g., remembering, socially
communicating, listening to narratives).
Dr. Kennedy is investigating the
relationships between personal beliefs about memory, on-going self-monitoring
of one's own learning, and decisions about compensatory memory strategies.
Adults with TBI have impaired recent memory, which is compounded by impaired
awareness and self-monitoring. Identifying these relationships will provide
clinicians with therapeutic recommendations about various levels of
self-monitoring and the generalization (or its lack) across domains.
The NeuroCognitive Communication Lab examines the language, cognitive, and
social skills of persons with cognitive-communication disorders as a result
of acquired brain injury.
Recent efforts have focused
on identifying and differentiating conditions in which adults with traumatic
brain injury (TBI) are able and unable to accurately self-regulate (monitoring
and strategy decisions) their own performance (e.g., remembering, socially
communicating, listening to narratives).
Dr. Kennedy is investigating the
relationships between personal beliefs about memory, on-going self-monitoring
of one's own learning, and decisions about compensatory memory strategies.
Adults with TBI have impaired recent memory, which is compounded by impaired
awareness and self-monitoring. Identifying these relationships will provide
clinicians with therapeutic recommendations about various levels of
self-monitoring and the generalization (or its lack) across domains.
