EIU Master of Science in Communication Disorders and Sciences

Our Grads Excel

Internship supervisors and employers report that EIU speech-language pathology students are well-prepared to work in medical and education settings.

Mean ASHA Praxis exam scores from EIU are significantly above the state and national averages. In fact, in 2018, 10,670 grad students took the Praxis Speech-Language Pathology exam nationally. ONLY 48 people of 10,670 scored a perfect 200 on the exam and 3 of them were from EIU. In 2017, 9,532 grad students took the SLP Praxis exam. Only 28 people of the more than 9,000 test takers had a perfect score and 1 of them was from EIU.  

Mentored Clinical Experiences

EIU faculty are the clinical supervisors, not adjunct staff. EIU faculty members provide mentoring, demonstration, clinical resources, and scaffolded clinical expectations as part of the clinical instruction process. We see clinical assignments as a valuable clinical teaching opportunity.

Undergraduate and graduate students in EIU’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic provide diagnostic and treatment services to more than 100 clients per semester. Clients include toddlers, preschoolers, elementary, high school and college-age students with a variety of speech and language disorders. Adults with acquired disorders such as voice, aphasia, cognitive-communication, dysarthria, and apraxia are also seen at the clinic. EIU supervisors also provide services with graduate students at local schools.

EIU graduate students receive a wide variety of clinical experiences prior to full-time internships.

Full Semester Internships

After coursework and on-campus clinic experiences are completed (typically in 14 months, summer-fall-spring-summer), graduate students complete a full-time 14-week internship in a school setting and another full-time 14-week internship in a medical setting. Our internship coordinators meet with graduate students to understand their preferences for type of setting and location. Our internship coordinators make all the calls and emails to secure internship placements. Some sites which students have been placed are as close as Mattoon IL and as far away as Germany, Nevada, Texas, Florida, Connecticut, and Hawaii. A map of sites where students have been place can be accessed here.

Case-Based Teaching

Dedicated faculty have clinical expertise and maintain a caseload in our clinic which insures that they are able to provide the latest treatment instruction. In addition, faculty are in contact with working professionals and internship supervisors gathering feedback on specific disorder areas that need to be infused in course curriculum. Consequently, faculty expertise and feedback from working speech-language pathologists provide the basis for case scenarios and video examples infused in academic courses. In addition, many class assignments are case-based and promote application and integration of course knowledge. Internship supervisors consistently comment on how well prepared EIU graduate students are for their internship experiences. Our faculty strongly believe this is in part due to our dedication to case-based instruction and Grand Rounds, a unique case-based capstone course.

Open Door Policy

Faculty in CDS are in their offices with the doors open throughout the week so that students are welcome to stop by and interact on a regular basis. Individual attention and close student/instructor interaction is a key factor to success in the department. When walking the halls, you can be sure to see many “open doors” with students sitting with faculty discussing class, clinic, study abroad opportunities, or a research project. Students are our highest priority.