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JDP LCD Program Goals

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33 views2 pages

JDP LCD Program Goals

Uploaded by

Jennifer
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program

in Language and Communicative Disorders

JDP-LCD Program Learning Outcomes

• The goals of the Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders (JDP-
LCD) as stated in the original proposal and that continue today are:
• To provide doctoral level education in which studies of language and communicative behavior
are brought together into a program that integrates communicative disorders, cognitive
science, neurosciences, psychology and linguistics, taking advantage of the strengths and
unique skills of the combined faculty at SDSU and UCSD.
• To prepare professionals, educated in the interface between behavioral measures and the
newer methods of cognitive neuroscience, to provide critical leadership in research and health
services.
• To prepare Ph.D. level persons in the field of language and communicative disorders to serve
as faculty in university programs and scientists in a variety of settings to carry out needed
research on the processes of language development, disorders, assessment, and intervention.
• To prepare scientists who will carry out research in language and communicative disorders
related to bilingualism and multiculturalism. This need is brought about by a dramatic shift in
the composition of the U.S. population, leading to growing numbers of bilingual children and
adults in California and across the US who are in need of diagnosis and treatment of
communicative disorders.

Curriculum:
A key element of our program is to provide interdisciplinary training in normal and atypical
language development and communication, and in the neural bases of language learning, use and
loss. As such, students take courses in speech and language sciences and disorders, psychology,
linguistics, cognitive science and neurosciences designed to provide a foundation in basic science
and translational research. In addition, students are engaged in intense laboratory rotations that
begin in the first year and other requirements intended to prepare students for the academic
workplace and for research careers. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum and
research experiences of the program, students are enrolled on both campuses throughout their
doctoral program. The Student Handbook may be consulted for more details about program
requirements, faculty specializations, courses, advancement and dissertation requirements
(http://slhs.sdsu.edu/phd/curriculum/).
Major Concentration
By the end of the first year, students select a major field of emphasis by choosing one of three
concentrations: Adult Language, Child Language, or Multilingualism. However, since students
are required to take some courses in each of the three concentrations, they often end up specializing
in more than one concentration as their research interests mature:
• The Adult Language concentration is intended to provide intensive education in
communicative disorders in adults. Students in this concentration will also develop
expertise in the study of language processing in normal adults.
• The Child Language concentration is intended to provide specialized education in
childhood (birth to adolescence) communicative disorders. Students in this concentration
will also achieve competence in developmental psycholinguistics emphasizing language
acquisition in normally developing children.
• The Multilingualism concentration is intended to provide education in cross-linguistic,
ethnographic, and other comparative studies of communicative disorders in children and/or
adults, including those associated with bilingualism and second language acquisition
(including acquisition of sign language in deaf individuals).

Methods Minor
All students are required to develop basic expertise in experimental design and statistics, and to
become familiar with standard techniques for behavioral assessment, e.g., intelligence testing,
standardized tests of language ability, analyses of spontaneous language, design and
implementation of experimental measures of language and other related cognitive behaviors. In
addition, by the end of the third year all students declare a Methods Minor from one of three
options; however, as with our major concentrations many students develop expertise in more than
one method:
• The Behavioral Dynamics minor is intended for students who want to specialize in
computer-controlled psycholinguistic methods for the study of language and cognitive
processing in real-time.
• The Neural Imaging minor is intended for students who want to complement behavioral
studies with neuroanatomical and physiological techniques, including event-related brain
potentials (ERP) and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI).
• The Neural Modeling minor is intended for students who are interested in the simulation
of normal and abnormal language and cognition in artificial neural networks.

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