Duquesne University | Speech Language Pathology

Speech-languagepathology is a sister to the academic disciple and profession of audiology. Audiology is the discipline that studies hearing, hearing science, hearing assessment, and the management of hearing disorders. As a profession audiologists work in a variety of settings assessing and treating people with hearing disorders. Both speech-language pathology and audiology focus on helping people communicate. Speech-language pathologists must know about hearing and hearing disorders. They must be able to understand the effect a hearing loss may have on a client's ability to communicate. For example, we know that if children cannot hear well they will have difficulty developing good speech and language skills and will have problems learning. Adults with hearing impairments have difficulty communicating in many environments and also may slowly loose their ability to clearly produce some speech sounds.

At Duquesne University students learn about hearing and hearing impairments. They learn to understand the impact of hearing loss on people's lives. Students also learn how to help children and adults with hearing losses to better function in their daily lives.

In the Duquesne University Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic student clinicians have the opportunity to work with children and adults who have hearing impairments. Some may use hearing aids; some may have had cochlear implants. Speech-language pathologists help such children acquire language and speech skills and help adults re-acquire these skills or prevent speech clarity from deteriorating. Hearing impairments can also affect the way children process auditory information (sound). This can make it difficult for these children to succeed in school where good listening skills are so important. In the Clinic speech-language pathology students also help children with auditory processing disorders develop listening skills and learn how to use those skills to more effectively listen. This can make a huge difference in these childrens' academic success.