Each May, Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC) raises awareness about good communication health during Speech and Hearing Month. This year\u2019s outreach focuses on the role that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists play in concussion management.<\/p>\n
\u201cSAC is highlighting the impact of concussions on people\u2019s communication,\u201d explains Lynn Dempsey, Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Child Language Laboratory. \u201cBecause of their impact on memory and attention, concussions can really have a negative effect on people\u2019s ability to communicate in their everyday lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue is especially meaningful to Brianna Kuchurean, a 22-year-old honours student from Whitby who has just completed her degree in Speech and Language Sciences in the Department of Applied Linguistics. In the fall, she\u2019ll start work on a graduate degree with hopes to specialize as a medical SLP, working on the relationship between traumatic brain injuries and communication challenges.<\/p>\n
Kuchurean recalls that when she had to decide whether to pursue a clinical or research degree, a conversation with an SLP working with neuropsychologists helped her make her choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only was I able to have conversations with my professors about my goals, but I was given the opportunity to get in contact with various professionals working within the field,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
But Kuchurean\u2019s first contact with SLPs came at a much younger age.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe field was introduced to me in my own home with a younger brother who was receiving therapy,\u201d she says. \u201cI was given a first-hand opportunity to observe my brother\u2019s everyday struggles and watch the impact of speech and language intervention on not only my brother\u2019s quality of life, but my whole family\u2019s quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeech and hearing disorders have profound effects on people,\u201d Dempsey notes. \u201cEveryday interactions become extremely challenging for people with difficulties communicating, preventing them from performing well at work, asking for help, hearing instructions at school and developing friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dempsey says that though many people take communication health for granted, disorders are not uncommon. Amongst Canadian preschoolers, for example, eight to 12 per cent of children experience a language impairment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have communication health, we are able to effectively send and receive messages in ways that enable us to learn, express our thoughts, feelings, ideas, and create and build relationships,\u201d Dempsey explains. \u201cCommunication disorders have a significant effect on people\u2019s well-being in all kinds of ways \u2014 emotional, social, physical, vocational \u2014 really, all aspects of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students in Applied Linguistics can study Speech and Language Sciences or Hearing Sciences in preparation for graduate programs in Speech-Language Pathology, studying communication disorders related to language, or Audiology, studying hearing and balance disorders. Some students also decide to pursue post-graduate diplomas to become Communication Disorder Assistants.<\/p>\n
Alison Dykstra, a 21-year-old honours student from Fonthill who has also just completed her undergraduate degree in Speech and Language Sciences, will start a graduate program next fall to become a Speech-Language Pathologist.<\/p>\n
She says that though she has always had a passion for both teaching and science, her professors helped inspire her to choose her career path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout my undergraduate degree, I took an abundance of hands-on courses that provided me with a great deal of knowledge relating to communication disorders, assessment and treatment,\u201d says Dykstra. \u201cMost of these courses were taught by professors who were or had been registered SLPs and were truly experts in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dempsey is one of those professors, having worked as a SLP for a year between completing her master\u2019s degree and beginning a PhD program. Inspired by course placements and summer jobs she completed while a student, Dempsey now ensures that her courses offer students the chance to see the work of SLPs up close.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my third-year Child Language Disorders course, one assignment involves analyzing a conversation between an adult and a child by figuring out things like the average length of the child\u2019s sentences, the number of different words the child uses and developing goals and treatment activities,\u201d says Dempsey. \u201cThis year, students designed activities to help a child learn to produce regular past tense endings \u2014 saying, ‘yesterday, he walked’ instead of ‘yesterday, he walk,’ for example.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dempsey also notes that students interested in how speech and language are affected by brain health have some unique opportunities in the department\u2019s programs, including a fourth-year course in Clinical Observation of Communication Disorders taught by clinicians at the Niagara Peninsula Children\u2019s Centre. In that class, \u201cstudents engage in video-taped analysis of assessment and intervention activities for people with a variety of speech, language, hearing and swallowing disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following convocation in June, both Kuchurean and Dykstra are keen to continue into their graduate work and their future careers in a field that Kuchurean describes as \u201camazing\u201d and that Dykstra believes is \u201cincredibly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Each May, Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC) raises awareness about good communication health during Speech and Hearing Month. This year\u2019s outreach focuses on the role that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists play in concussion management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":65911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,4,38],"tags":[9005,72,9004,9003,522,8996,9002],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65912,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65882\/revisions\/65912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}