The University at Buffalo is a major research university, but our educational and field experiences are provide personal learning environments. Learning experiences are guided by engaged faculty who help students realize their teaching potential. Most of the major courses will be taught by academic faculty members who have intensive research and teaching experience. The Department provides multiple teaching formats, including lectures, independent study, clinical laboratory and clinical observations. Undergraduate courses are typically less than 100 students in size. Instructors and teaching assistants hold regular office hours to help students who need individual assistance.
Communicative Disorders & Sci (CDS)
Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences
122 Cary HallSouth Campus
Buffalo, NY 14214-3023
Dr. Jeff Higginbotham
Chair
Chair
Dr. Ling-Yu Guo
Director of Graduate Studies
Director of Graduate Studies
The Learning Environment
About Our Facilities
The Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences houses state-of-the-art clinical and research facilities. The Department’s Speech-Language & Hearing Clinic is the training facility for students who are majoring in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. The Clinic provides services for hundreds of Western New York residents each year. It has a full spectrum of services including treatment in the areas of child and adult speech and language disorders, voice and swallowing disorders, augmentative communication, hearing loss, tinnitus, and central auditory processing. The community-based clinics also provide training in multicultural speech and language, cochlear implants, augmentative communication, and speech, language and hearing screenings for children and adults. The research facilities include Hearing Research, Motor Speech, Language Learning, Child Language, Computational Language and Memory, and the Communication and Assistive Device Laboratories.
About Our Faculty
The Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences has twenty full time faculty members, including nine academic and eleven clinical faculty. One of our faculty members received the esteemed rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor and another named Fellow of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association. Our faculty members have expertise in numerous research areas, including noise and ototoxicity-induced hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis, augmentative communication technologies, speech production deficits, adult language and memory, child language development and disorders, and social communication and interaction. Faculty members hold a number of research and development grants, and publish research papers in top academic journals. The Department also has more than thirty adjunct professors who have expertise in various related fields, including audiology, speech and language disorders, human factors, neuroscience, vestibular diagnosis, etc.
Please visit our Department's faculty directory website for additional information about our faculty.
Faculty List Directory
Please visit the Communicative Disorders and Sciences department website for additional information about our faculty.
CDS Courses
- CDS 151LEC Introduction to Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Lecture
Surveys the field of communication disorders and introduces the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology. Introduces the nature of communication disorders and the effects of speech-language-hearing handicaps on the lives of individuals, families, and society. An informational course for students in education, social, and health-related fields who deal with persons whose communicative behaviors are at variance with the norm.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 198SEM UB Seminar Seminar
The one credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps transition to UB through an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 198 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.
Credits: 1
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Other Requisites: Students who have already successfully completed the UB seminar course may not repeat this course. If you have any questions regarding enrollment for this course, please contact your academic advisor.
- CDS 199SEM UB Seminar Seminar
The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and oral communication, and learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Other Requisites: Students who have already successfully completed the first year seminar course may not repeat this course. If you have any questions regarding enrollment for this course, please contact your academic advisor.
- CDS 286LEC Phonetics Lecture
Basic aspects of articulatory and acoustic phonetics and transcription. Recognize and describe phonetic symbols, transcribe American English using the International Phonetic Alphabet. Describe and explain the normal aspects of speech production, including basics aspects of speech anatomy and physiology, speech acoustics, suprasegmentals, phonological processes, and dialects.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 288LEC Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech Mechanism Lecture
Involves an anatomic presentation of the respiratory, laryngeal and supralaryngeal areas of the speech mechanism. Examines muscle and skeletal structure for each speech component. Emphasizes in-depth discussion of breathing physiology for speech, laryngeal function for phonation and supralaryngeal function for articulation and resonance. Provides an anatomic and physiologic basis for all speech and voice disorders.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 289LEC General and Speech Acoustics
- CDS 290LEC Audiology: Diagnosis and Management Lecture
Introduces etiology, diagnosis, and rehabilitation of auditory disorders.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
- CDS 301LEC Language Development in Children Lecture
Explores the acquisition of language form and function by typical developing children. Discusses the normal development of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics from infancy through early adolescence by examining empirical data and current theoretical issues and controversies. Examines the emergence of literacy skills and the differences in acquisition between mono- and bi-(or multi-) lingual children. Includes the impact of cultural, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, and individual variation on children's normal language acquisition.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 382LLB Applied Physics of Sound Lecture
Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- CDS 387LEC Psychoacoustic Science Lecture
Presents the acoustic science background necessary for study in speech pathology, audiology, physical acoustics, electroacoustics, speech acoustics, psychoacoustics, psychology, and hearing science.
- CDS 392LEC Phonological Disorders: Diagnosis and Management Lecture
Introduction to sound acquisition in typically developing children and atypically developing children who exhibit speech or phonological disorders. Examine the major etiologies of speech disorders and coexisting conditions correlated with phonological disorders. Case studies will introduce various aspects of a comprehensive phonological evaluation and data analyses, and current approaches to phonological remediation.
- CDS 402LEC Language Disorders in Children Lecture
Studies language disorders in children, including mental retardation, language learning disabilities, and autism. Topics include assessment techniques emphasizing language sample analysis, consideration of dialect differences, and treatment techniques to facilitate generalization.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
Prerequisites: CDS 301, and CDS 482/483 (may be taken concurrently with CDS 402).
- CDS 428LEC Neural Basis of Communication Lecture
Examines basic concepts of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology as the foundation for understanding communication, sensory, motor and other processing problems of neurologically impaired children and adults.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 469LEC Stuttering Therapy Lecture
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- CDS 480LAB Clinical Observation and Participation Laboratory
Involves presentations and class discussions related to assessment and remediation of a variety of communication disorders. Minimum of twenty-five clock hours of directed observation in diagnosis and treatment of speech, language, and hearing disorders, which is required by ASHA as a prerequisite to clinical practicum.
Credits: 1
Grading: Pass/Not Pass (PNP)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- CDS 482LEC Diagnostics in Communicative Disorders Lecture
Covers procedures involved in the formal and informal evaluation of a variety of speech and language disorders in children and adults. Units include the diagnostic process, interviewing, psychometrics, and testing procedures across disorders.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 483LAB Diagnostics in Communicative Disorders Lab Laboratory
Provides practical experience in interviewing, test administration, oral facial examination, and conferencing during the diagnostic process.
Credits: 1
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 484LEC Aural Rehabilitation Lecture
Studies the effect of hearing impairment on children and adults. Examines the application of knowledge of acoustics, linguistics, cognition, learning, and counseling psychology to the reduction of hearing handicaps.
- CDS 485LEC Speech Pathology in the Schools Lecture
Organization and administration of speech, language, and hearing programs in schools. Current legislation and practices in school programs. Includes models of service delivery, individualized educational programming, rights and responsibilities of teachers and other staff; instructional design and planning including case selection; multicultural and bilingual considerations; speech-language pathologist's role in language and literacy development. Required for New York State certification of Teachers of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- CDS 487LEC Psychoacoustic Science Lecture
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- CDS 491SEM Special Topics Seminar
Content varies each semester.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
- CDS 493SEM Honors Research Seminar Seminar
Students admitted to the Early Admission Program (early admission to the graduate program in CDS at UB) participate in tutorials from individual academic and clinical faculty members in the department covering research and clinical methods in speech, language, and hearing abilities and disorders. Readings are pertinent to each topic, and students complete a paper or project with a faculty member in an area of interest.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- CDS 497TUT Departmental Honors Thesis or Project Tutorial
Accepted seniors pursue a specialized, independent study leading to an honors thesis or project.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- CDS 498TUT Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Tutorial
Students collaborate with faculty research mentors on an ongoing project in a faculty member's laboratory or conduct independent research under the guidance of a faculty member. This experience provides students with an inquiry-based learning opportunity and engages them as active learners in a research setting.
Credits: 1 - 6
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- CDS 499TUT Independent Study Tutorial
Individualized student work under the guidance of a faculty member, intended to pursue topics that are not currently offered through regular coursework at the university.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Complementary Programs
- Linguistics BA - Language and Cognition Concentration
- Linguistics BA - Applied Linguistics Concentration
- Speech and Hearing Minor
- Physical Therapy (DPT)
- Psychology BA
- Occupational Science BS/Occupational Therapy MS
- Linguistics Minor
- Speech and Hearing Science BA
- Linguistics BA - Language, Society, and Communication Concentration
- Psychology BS