{"id":28172,"date":"2019-11-19T16:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T22:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=28172"},"modified":"2019-11-19T14:25:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T20:25:40","slug":"apsu-now-offering-degree-in-communication-sciences-and-disorders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/11\/19\/apsu-now-offering-degree-in-communication-sciences-and-disorders\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU now offering degree in communication sciences and disorders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – The first time Isha Cheaye saw a speech-language pathologist working with a child, she knew that\u2019s what she wanted to do with her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo an outsider it looks like play, but it\u2019s benefiting the child in such a positive way,\u201d the Austin Peay State University (APSU) student said. \u201cYou don\u2019t realize until you have the skills and the lessons and resources that this has an amazing impact on the child\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Isha<\/a>

Isha Cheaye works with Caden at Austin Peay State University. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Last spring, the Austin Peay State University Department of Health and Human Performance launched a new degree concentration in Communication Sciences and Disorders, which will prepare students like Cheaye for careers in speech language pathology and audiology. But what exactly do these professionals do, and why did their work impress Cheaye so much?<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people may still call us speech teachers, but now we are a much more science-oriented field,\u201d Dr. Kelly Kleinhans, APSU clinical associate professor, said. \u201cWe help with stuttering and other speech difficulties, but we also work with all ages, from infants in the neonatal intensive care unit who can\u2019t eat, due to feeding and swallowing problems, to the other end of the life span, adults with ALS or those suffering from a stroke or brain injury, we can even make life better for adults with dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n

A speech- language pathologist helps with feeding and swallowing problems?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Kleinhans said. \u201cThe vocal tract, the structures we use to produce your voice are the same structures we use to eat with, so when babies are born, the physiology is either immature or they can\u2019t coordinate the respiration and swallowing, so they have trouble feeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be that passionate about something\u201d<\/h3>\n
\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Kelly Kleinhans, clinical associate professor at Austin Peay State University. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

At the end of her freshman year at Austin Peay, Cheaye didn\u2019t know what she wanted to do with her life.<\/p>\n

On a whim, she enrolled in one of the University\u2019s newest classes \u2013 Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. She had never heard of a speech-language pathologist.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what I wanted to do so I just took the intro class,\u201d she said. \u201cIn that class, Dr. K (Kleinhans) swept me off my feet and roped me in. It was so interesting, and her passion for the program and for being a speech pathologist was so incredible. I said, \u2018I want to be that passionate about something.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Kleinhans arrived at APSU in the fall of 2018 to develop the concentration, and her passion for the field has led the program to experience massive growth in its first two semesters. During her first fall at Austin Peay State University, Kleinhans taught an exploratory course, providing an introduction for speech-language pathology and audiology.<\/p>\n

Only four students enrolled in that class.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just finished advising season, and I advised 24 students,\u201d she said. \u201cNow that the word is getting out, the students are populating our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is amazing!\u2019\u201d<\/h3>\n

Earlier this month, Kleinhans sat in her small office inside the Dunn Center, preparing toys and flashcards for her program\u2019s afternoon clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe partnered with the Clarksville Association for Down Syndrome, and they\u2019re bringing their kids in for reading tutoring sessions as an authentic experience for my students taking a language and literacy class,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking at how language interacts with literacy, which is what the students with Down syndrome need to be successful academically. It\u2019s our first clinic at APSU.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an empty classroom down the hall, Cheaye sat with Caden, a middle school-aged boy with Down syndrome. Holding a family book with pictures of his parents, she tried to get him to identify the written words for \u201cmommy\u201d and \u201cdaddy.\u201d That afternoon, Caden was distracted, not making eye contact or listening to Cheaye\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, there was one moment when he actually looked, and I knew he was attentive and engaged,\u201d she said. \u201cHe picked the right card for \u201cdaddy,\u201d and it was amazing to see. I was like, \u2018This is amazing!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

[320right]This reaction didn\u2019t surprise Kleinhans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur students are phenomenal,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have big personalities and are eager to learn and they see the world in such unique ways. They\u2019re going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when they graduate, they might be able to stay at Austin Peay to complete their graduate work in the field. The APSU Department of Health and Human Performance is now in the early stages of developing a master\u2019s degree in speech-language pathology.<\/p>\n

For information on the program, visit https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/programs\/undergraduate\/communication-sciences-disorders.php<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – The first time Isha Cheaye saw a speech-language pathologist working with a child, she knew that\u2019s what she wanted to do with her life. \u201cTo an outsider it looks like play, but it\u2019s benefiting the child in such a positive way,\u201d the Austin Peay State University (APSU) student said. \u201cYou don\u2019t realize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[34343,23,34098,262,512,825,15563,12961,34341,34342],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7ko","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28173,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28172\/revisions\/28173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}