Master's Program in Speech Language Pathology
The Graduate Program in Speech-Language Pathology at Illinois State University boasts a balanced curriculum preparing graduates for practice in all educational and health care settings.
The Eckelmann-Taylor Speech and Hearing Clinic, located in the same building as our classrooms, documents over 4,400 client visits per year. Physically connected to the University’s lab school, the clinic is involved in the provision of speech, language, and hearing services to a large population of preschool and school-age children, children with hearing impairment and deafness, and those with severe and multiple, physical, and cognitive impairments. Grants from the Central Illinois Down Syndrome Organization support the provision of services to many individuals with Down Syndrome. Other specialized experiences available on campus include but are not limited to phonological, language, aphasia and fluency groups, instruction in English as a second language, AAC, and autism treatment.
Beyond the walls of the clinic, established partnerships with a growing list of community agencies allow graduate clinicians to refine clinical skills in the classroom to the practice of speech-language pathology at the following:
- early childhood centers
- private practices
- private and public schools
- daycare centers
- hospitals
- nursing homes
- agencies serving adults with developmental disabilities.
Once graduate students have completed a coordinated, four-term sequence of courses and practicum, they complete their training with two full-time, eleven-week internship experiences. Internship sites are selected in cooperation with, and all arrangements are made on behalf of students by the Clinical Coordinator in Speech-Language Pathology. The Clinical Coordinator maintains over 500 contracts with external sites and is continually seeking additional sites both within and outside state boundaries to meet the unique needs of each clinician.