Undergraduate Clinical Practicum

Speech and Hearing Clinical Practicum Philosophy
WSU is proud of its undergraduate clinic experience. All undergraduates enroll in clinic during fall and spring semesters of their senior year. By graduation most of our undergraduates receive between 15 and 30 clock hours to carry with them to graduate school.

We view clinical practicum as a very important course. It provides an opportunity for students to experience the profession firsthand. All students are closely supervised, according to standards prescribed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Supervisors have extensive experience working with undergraduate students and have worked hard to make this an exceptional experience for the student.

Student clinicians receive approximately 50% supervision in the university clinic. More advanced students can receive off-site practicum at the Moscow, Idaho, Head Start. We provide direct guidance during the clinical process, from planning through execution of the therapy plan. Our goal is for our student clinicians to become independent, motivated clinicians ready to meet the challenges of the graduate school program.

We know that speech and language are best learned through environmental, participatory, and therapeutic processes. We strongly support therapy that entrains the client and have developed the Language Enrichment Group (LEG) as an exciting means of reaching this goal. LEG is modeled after the highly successful Language Acquisition Preschool of the University of Kansas.

Team Process
The supervision process is collaborative by design. All students encourage and learn from one another as members of a clinical practicum team that meets weekly. During the team meeting clinicians have the opportunity to consult with other student clinicians, share case information, make case presentations, and provide insight to their colleagues on the team. This collaborative team process has proven to be an extremely effective means for providing relevant practice with introspection, self-evaluation, and development of clinical skills. Students and faculty have found that the team process is very empowering and stimulating, and clients are the beneficiaries.

Supervisors
Gail Chermak, Ph.D., CCC-A

Dr. Chermak specializes in aural rehabilitation and treatment of central auditory processing disorder.

J. Richard Franks, Ph.D., CCC-A

Dr. Franks specializes in hearing assessment and hearing aid fitting, and assessment of central auditory processing difficulties.

Ella Inglebret, Ph.D, CCC-SLP

Dr. Inglebret specializes in multicultural issues related to assessment and treatment as well as clinical supervision development.

Jeanne Johnson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Dr. Johnson specializes in language development and augmentative communication.

Sally Johnston, M.S., CCC-SLP

Sally supervises student clinicians in a wide variety of cases, specializing in cognitive rehabilitation, adult populations, aphasia, and fluency disorders.

Carla Jones, M.A., CCC-SLP

Carla supervises the Language Enrichment Group and specializes in language work with children. She has begun developing an oral myofunctional therapy specialization in Pullman with undergraduate clinicians.