February 19, 2016

Robert Owens Visits Campus, Expert in Language Disorders

Posted in: Communication Sciences Disorders

Dr. Robert Owens, a renowned expert in child language disorders visited Montclair State for a workshop with more than 50 students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

Robert Owens, Ph.D. a Professor at the College of St. Rose in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders is a renowned expert in child language disorders in infants and preschoolers. His textbook, Language Development: An Introduction, is the most widely used in the world and has been translated into Spanish, Korean, and Arabic.

Owens brought his experience and expertise to the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Montclair State University by conducting a workshop, Language Sample Collection and Analysis… Sweet as SUGAR.

Language sample collection and analysis is a very informative, but underutilized tool used to assess the language skills in children. Most graduate student clinicians and some professionals often approach language sample collection and analysis with trepidation due to the labor intensive methods that are available.

Owens shared with over 50 students, faculty, staff and alumni an updated and user-friendly method to collect and analyze language. Feedback from Owens’ workshop was nothing but positive.

One graduate student clinician stated "I’m going to use this with my client tomorrow!"

An alumni of the program reported that the workshop was “excellent.”

Dr. Owens and MSU Assistant Professor Valerie Johnson will be collaborating on extending his language sample protocol to include underrepresented populations in the normative sample.