Please explore our growing website. The mission of the Penn State University-Rural Speech Language Project is to meet the need to prepare highly skilled, competent personnel to serve children with speech or language disabilities in the schools, especially those who reside in rural areas through a preservice, master s level specialty program. The program meets the requirements for Pennsylvania Teacher Certification and ASHA Certification. Graduate students develop the competencies to offer high quality services to children with speech or language impairments. Utilizing interdisciplinary and collaborative models which are sensitive to cultural and socioeconomic diversity, this three-year Project will assist 21 graduate students.
Students participate in academic courses on rural issues and multicultural issues in rural areas.
They attend colloquies on collaborative and team management techniques in the school setting and design an experiential course dealing with rural communities. They complete their program of study with a 15-week practicum experience in the schools in rural areas. The Project provides information to speech-language pathologists working in schools in rural areas about resources, information, and networking. In addition to providing unique learning opportunities, it provides an environment for conducting research on topics related to communication disorders and their impact on children, families, and professionals in rural areas. The Project is funded by the United States Department of Education .