WCU CSD Diversity Statement
A fundamental understanding and appreciation of diversity is basic to the provision of speech and language services to all age groups. WCU CSD students, faculty, and staff must be able to relate to persons of diverse nationalities, races, backgrounds, religious beliefs, disabilities, and sexual orientations.
CSD courses integrate an understanding, affirmation and respect for people from diverse backgrounds. Culture and personal identity are emphasized. Diversity content ensures that students learn to provide speech and language services that meet the needs of all groups served. Students are taught to recognize how diversity within and between groups influences practice. They also learn to define, design and implement practice strategies with persons from diverse backgrounds. Content relating to diversity is infused throughout all required courses in the CSD curriculum.
WCU CSD Prevention Statement
Prevention requires increased efforts to eliminate the onset of communication disorders and their causes and to promote the development and maintenance of optimal communication. Alternative professional roles and strategies must be developed, and the information and skills to promote and practice them must be acquired.
WCU CSD faculty promote prevention awareness by utilizing the following terminology specific to prevention: 1) Primary Prevention—the elimination or inhibition of the onset and development of a communication disorder by altering susceptibility or reducing exposure for susceptible persons; 2) Secondary Prevention—the early detection and treatment of communication disorders; 3) Tertiary Prevention—the reduction of a disability by attempting to restore effective functioning; 4) At Risk—the potential to develop a disorder based on specific biological, environmental, or behavioral factors; 5) Incidence—the rate of new occurrences of a condition in a population free of the disorder within a specified time period; 6) Prevalence—the total rate or proportion of cases in a population at, or during, a specified period of time; 7) Epidemiology—an observational science which investigates distribution and determinants of diseases and disorders in populations; and 8) Wellness—the development and maintenance of an optimal level of competence appropriate to any given stage of the life cycle.
CSD graduate and undergraduate courses address prevention by assuring that students:
Prevention competencies listed above appear throughout CSD syllabi.
The statement above is adapted from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s 1988 Prevention of Communication Disorders Position Statement. Available from www.asha.org/policy.