UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls

Graduate program

Graduate Program

Updated CSD Accreditation Notice

The graduate program in Communication Sciences and Disorders leads to a Master of Science (M.S.) degree and trains students to become speech-language pathologists.  Our graduates are employed in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, long-term care facilities, schools and private practice.

The curriculum is a full-time, two-year (five semesters) program. The first three semesters (fall, spring, summer) students enroll in courses and gain clinical experience in the state-of-the-art, University of Wisconsin-River Falls Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. The second year (fall, spring) students enroll in one evening course each semester and gain experience in a full-time 12-week external practicum experience each semester (pediatric site one semester and adult site the other semester). Because of our location on the outer edge of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, students can choose external practicum experiences in urban, suburban or rural sites.

Students learn basic communication and swallowing processes (including their biological, neurological, acoustic, psychological, developmental, linguistic and cultural bases), standards of ethical conduct, research process, and the etiologies, characteristics, prevention strategies, assessment strategies, and intervention strategies for:       

  • Articulation/phonological disorders
  • Fluency disorders
  • Receptive and expressive language disorders
  • Hearing disorders
  • Swallowing disorders
  • Voice and resonance disorders
  • Cognitive aspects of communication
  • Social aspects of communication
  • Communication modalities  

The Master of Science (MS) education program in speech-language pathology (residential) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2200 Research Boulevard, #310, Rockville, MD, 20850, 800-498-2071 or 301-296-5700.