Graduate Certificate in Communication Sciences
The Graduate Certificate in Communication Sciences and Disorders/Speech-Language Pathology (CSD Leveling Program) is offered through the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders within the School of Health Professions at UT Health San Antonio.
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are licensed professionals who work to assess, diagnose, treat, and help prevent speech, voice, language, cognitive-linguistic, and swallowing disorders across the age-span. Application eligibility to SLP graduate programs is limited to individuals who have completed an undergraduate degree in CSD and/or all required prerequisite course work. The Graduate Certificate program is specifically designed to provide prerequisite course work for students who have a non-CSD baccalaureate degree and have not completed required CSD prerequisites.
The Graduate Certificate program consists of 5 courses for a total of 15 semester credit hours. All courses are offered 100% online unless otherwise advised well in advance. Course instruction covers anatomy and physiology, phonetics and normal articulation, normal language development, speech and hearing science, and audiology. Successful completion of the program requirements prepares a student to meet the ASHA certification requirements in preparatory work toward admission to the master’s SLP program.
Interested applicants should consult the department website for the most current modifications to these requirements and deadlines. Current admission requirements include:
- Bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college or university in a major other than Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Overall grade point average (GPA) ≥ 3.0 on a 4.0 scale
- Students applying to online programs who reside outside of Texas must live in a participating National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) state to be accepted into our program. To see if your state participates and get more information, visit the NC-SARA website.
The graduate certificate program consists of five courses (15 semester credit hours). Students must satisfactorily complete all required course work with a grade of “B” or better for the award of a Graduate Certificate in Communication Sciences.
The Certificate Program is offered 100% online. Should student demand in the future warrant other delivery modalities, such as a face-to-face or hybrid format, the program may also prepare alternate formats. Students will be advised well in advance of program application and course registration as to the delivery modalities offered in a specific program year.
The program will follow the summer admissions cycle and offer and start classes according to the published academic calendars. However, the program will matriculate the first cohort to start classes in the Fall semester, 2020.
Plan of Study: Graduate Certificate in Communication Sciences for the first cohort beginning in the Fall 2020 Semester
| First Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credit Hours | |
| MSLP 5101 | Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing | 3 |
| MSLP 5102 | Phonetics and Normal Articulation | 3 |
| MSLP 5103 | Normal Language Development | 3 |
| Spring | ||
| MSLP 5104 | Speech and Hearing Science | 3 |
| MSLP 5105 | Introduction to Audiology | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 15.0 | |
Plan of Study: Graduate Certificate in Communication Sciences for future cohorts beginning in Summer Session
| First Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summer | Credit Hours | |
| MSLP 5101 | Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing | 3 |
| MSLP 5102 | Phonetics and Normal Articulation | 3 |
| Fall | ||
| MSLP 5103 | Normal Language Development | 3 |
| MSLP 5104 | Speech and Hearing Science | 3 |
| Spring | ||
| MSLP 5105 | Introduction to Audiology | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 15.0 | |
The primary program objective is to prepare students not holding an undergraduate degree in communication sciences and disorders but desiring careers as speech-language pathologists a competitive application to master’s degree level speech-language pathology training programs.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the program, students will:
- Demonstrate fundamental knowledge of human communication, communication development, and the nature of communication disorders across the lifespan.
- Demonstrate the ability to integrate information on normal and abnormal human development through the lens of clinical concepts.
- Meet the ASHA certification requirements in preparatory work toward admission to the master’s SLP program.
MSLP 5101. Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing. 3 Credit Hours.
This course provides a basic background on structural and functional components of the communicative act and swallowing mechanism, including subsystems of respiration, phonation, resonation, articulation, neural processes, and deglutition.
MSLP 5102. Phonetics and Normal Articulation. 3 Credit Hours.
This course offers a basic background in articulatory phonetics, descriptive phonetics, clinical phonetics, and developmental phonology. Specific materials may cover basic articulatory, acoustic, phonetic principles, pronunciation rules, segemental and suprasegemental features, the use of diacritics and IPA, and in-class practice of phonetic transcription.
MSLP 5103. Normal Language Development. 3 Credit Hours.
This course offers a basic introduction to language development from birth through adolescence, principles of language requisition, and language differences related to cultural diversity. Corequisites: MSLP 5102.
MSLP 5104. Speech and Hearing Science. 3 Credit Hours.
This course offers a basic introduction to fundamental processes underlying the production and perception of speech, acoustic and physiological aspects of speech measurement, and application of principles and methods of quantifying a variety of speech disorders. Corequisites: MSLP 5102.