FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. COC-08-020
August 23, 2007
New Speech Pathology Courses Offered College of the Canyons students interested in pursuing a career in the Speech/Language Pathology industry will have the opportunity to explore the fast growing field with two courses being offered at the college this fall. As a preview of the college's soon to be approved Speech/Language Pathology Assistant (SLPA) program, the course SLPA 102: Language Development Across the Lifespan was first offered to students in the spring semester and was met with great response. Focusing on the normal verbal and non-verbal communication across the human lifespan, SLPA 102 is designed to give students an understanding of how the various areas of language contribute to the total communication process in a multi-cultural society. "They're trying to understand the basics of language so they can better deal with what's abnormal," said Sue Albert, dean of Allied Health at the college. "It's a nice survey class. It will get your foot in the door helping people with speech language disorders, and then you can continue on to get a bachelors degree in it." Being offered for the first time this semester, SLPA 101: Introduction to Speech/Language Pathology will provide students with a strong foundation of knowledge pertaining to the field - which will be used to form ideas, draw inferences and think critically about human communication and its disorders. The course will also feature the discussion of various industry topics including language and jargon, professional standards, legal and ethical issues and the scope of responsibilities of both the speech language pathologist and the speech/language pathology assistant. "Both of these courses provide a method to look at the profession and look at the speech language pathology assistant career to see if you want to pursue it or not," said Albert, adding that both SLPA classes might also be of interest to those in the education field. "Because in education these days you have to deal with problems in communication," she said, "but you may want to choose to deal with it on a more personal level and become a speech language pathologist assistant." According to Albert, the need for qualified speech language pathologist assistants has grown in recent years in response to the increased number of K-12 students in need of such services. "The need is increasing for whatever reason, and the schools have to meet that need as more and more of their students are being diagnosed," Albert said. "The Santa Clarita Valley, Simi Valley and Ventura communities are all interested in getting help so they can assistant students in developing their speech skills." Both of the lecture/seminar style classes are being offered in a video tele-conferencing format and can be attended at either the College of the Canyons Valencia campus or Ventura County Speech Language Pathology facility. SLPA 101 will meet once a week on Tuesday's from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Bonelli Hall, room 110 and SLPA 102 will meet once a week on Thursday's from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., also in Bonelli Hall, room 110. For more information about the college's Speech Language Pathology Assistant classes please visit www.canyons.edu. | 
