The clinical practicum experience at Kent State University allows graduate students to gain supervised clinical experience through application of the knowledge and theory gained in the classroom by working directly with experienced and skilled clinical instructors. Our program has a thriving on-campus speech-language clinic that serves the university and the community and averages over 4,000 visits per year. The caseload is varied and gives students experience in providing diagnostic and therapeutic services to a broad clientele base.
Clients are children and adults who present with a variety of communication needs related to speech, language (including English as Second Language), social skills, voice, fluency, hearing, and cognition, swallowing and augmentative communication. Graduate students are typically assigned to work in our on-campus clinic for their first three to four semesters in our program. Our graduate program requires that students complete 25 hours of ASHA-compliant clinical observation prior to beginning clinical practicum, so students must be prepared to provide official documentation of those hours upon arrival to our graduate program. Observations must be within the scope of practice of speech-language pathology.
In the last two semesters of the program, students participate in semester-long full-time culminating experiences at off-campus sites such as schools (leading to eligibility for the Ohio Department Education Pupil Personnel License), hospitals, rehabilitation centers and skilled nursing facilities. Our program provides students with a liaison for each off-campus experience. The liaison provides support and works to ensure that the student, the supervisor and the site have the best experience possible. We are proud that community agencies welcome our student clinicians and that our program's reputation allows us to place students in settings that are outside our immediate geographic area.
Upon graduation, students are eligible to apply for the Ohio Board of Speech-Language Pathology license to practice, as well as American Speech-Language Hearing Association certification.