At which campus can I study this program?
Requirements for a minor may be completed at any campus location offering the specified courses for the minor. Students may not change from a campus that offers their major to a campus that does not offer their major for the purpose of completing a minor.
Program Description
This interdisciplinary minor is designed for students who want to learn about individuals with hearing disabilities, audition, and deafness within an individual and societal context. Core courses include knowledge and skills in preventing hearing loss, basic communication skills and disabilities, history, thought and culture of individuals who are deaf, and principles of human behavior and their applications. The minor will assist students in recognizing relationships among hearing disability, deafness, cultural differences and their impact on the individual in educational, social and vocational settings. Specializations include, but are not limited to, health-related fields, communications, societal and social life, cultural impact, educational experiences, prejudice and discrimination, and rehabilitation. Students will be able to place deaf culture and hearing disabilities in the proper perspective necessary for life-long learners engaged in fostering climates which embrace individuals from diverse backgrounds, especially disabilities.
The minor is most appropriate for students interested in clinical and health-related fields (e.g., nursing, biobehavioral health, or medicine), professional fields (e.g., business, pre-law, or communications), social sciences (e.g., human development and family studies, sociology, or psychology), and education (e.g., early childhood education, special education, rehabilitation counseling), as it will provide students with exposure to the range of variation in persons with hearing disabilities and deafness across the lifespan.
Students from any major (except Communication Sciences and Disorders) can declare a minor in Deafness and Hearing Studies. Students seeking advising for this minor should contact the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
What is Deafness and Hearing Studies?
Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) is the study of human communication disorders. The Deafness and Hearing Studies (DHS) Minor introduces students to the educational, societal and vocational world of individuals with hearing disabilities and deafness across the lifespan. The Deafness and Hearing Studies Minor is interdisciplinary in nature as undergraduate students will learn about communication skills, effects of loss of hearing and prevention of hearing loss, deaf culture and human behavior.
You Might Like This Program If...
- You know you will find fulfillment in working closely with others You want to work in an educational setting.
- You want to work in a health-related field.
- You are interested in learning more about individuals with communication differences and disabilities.
Program Requirements
| Requirement | Credits |
|---|---|
| Requirements for the Minor | 18 |
Requirements for the Minor
A grade of C or better is required for all courses in the minor, as specified by Senate Policy 59-10.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Prescribed Courses | ||
| Prescribed Courses: Require a grade of C or better | ||
| CSD 146 | Introduction to Communication Sciences and Disorders | 3 |
| CSD 269 | Deaf Culture  | 3 |
| PSYCH 100 | Introductory Psychology | 3 |
| Supporting Courses and Related Areas | ||
| Supporting Courses and Related Areas: Require a grade of C or better | ||
| Select 9 credits (at least 6 credits at the 400 level) of the following: 1 | 9 | |
| Cultural Foundations of Communications | ||
| Cultural Aspects of the Mass Media | ||
| American Sign Language I | ||
| Introduction to Audiology | ||
| Anatomy and Physiology for Speech and Hearing | ||
| Acoustic Principles in Communication Sciences and Disorders | ||
| Aural Rehabilitation | ||
| An Introduction to Augmentative and Alternative Communication | ||
| Independent Studies | ||
| Individual Differences and Education | ||
| Introduction to Human Development and Family Studies | ||
| Biocultural Studies of Family Organization | ||
| Adapted Physical Education | ||
| Concepts of Health | ||
| Women's Health Issues | ||
| Introduction to Psychology of Perception | ||
| Advanced Social Psychology | ||
| Multicultural Psychology in America | ||
| Health Psychology | ||
| Child Psychopathology | ||
| Inclusive Leisure Services | ||
| Introduction to Rehabilitation and Human Services | ||
| Medical Aspects of Disability | ||
| Introductory Sociology | ||
| Introductory Social Psychology | ||
| Social Stratification | ||
| Family in Cross-Cultural Perspective | ||
| Inclusive Special Ed Foundations: Legal, Characteristics, Collaboration, Assessment, and Management | ||
| Evidence-Based Instruction for Elementary Students with Disabilities in Reading, Math, and Writin | ||
| Evidence-Based Methods for Teaching Secondary Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Settings | ||
| Foundations of Special Education, Etiologies, Law, and Implications for Practice | ||
| 1 | Some courses in this category have prerequisites that are not required in the minor. |
Academic Advising
The objectives of the university’s academic advising program are to help advisees identify and achieve their academic goals, to promote their intellectual discovery, and to encourage students to take advantage of both in-and out-of class educational opportunities in order that they become self-directed learners and decision makers.
Both advisers and advisees share responsibility for making the advising relationship succeed. By encouraging their advisees to become engaged in their education, to meet their educational goals, and to develop the habit of learning, advisers assume a significant educational role. The advisee’s unit of enrollment will provide each advisee with a primary academic adviser, the information need to plan the chosen program of study, and referrals to other specialized resources.
READ SENATE POLICY 32-00: ADVISING POLICY
University Park
Joel Waters
Academic Adviser
308H Ford Building
University Park, PA 16802
814-867-3375
jrw5090@psu.edu
Career Paths
Students in the Deafness and Hearing Studies Minor may be inspired to pursue advanced degrees in audiology, teaching of the hearing impaired, instruction of American Sign Language, American Sign Language interpreters, vocational rehabilitation, special education, or counseling.
Contact
University Park
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND DISORDERS
308 Ford Building
University Park, PA 16802
814-863-4449
dag20@psu.edu