Words from the Wise
A desire to understand her young son鈥檚 speech and language delay sparked Deborah Parker鈥檚 interest in speech-language pathology.
A mother鈥檚 love knows no bounds, and Deborah Parker found her career goals shifting when her little boy began speech and language therapy. With no prior experience in the field, Parker emailed Professor Diana Emanuel to discuss transferring into 91影视破解版鈥檚 undergraduate speech-language pathology and audiology program. 鈥淪he was so generous with her time and went above and beyond to answer my questions and make me feel comfortable,鈥� says Parker. 鈥淓ven before I applied, I knew how deeply the program cares about its students.鈥�
鈥淢y professors and my classmates have created a family for me at Towson,鈥� said Parker, who worked as a research assistant with the Hussman Center for Adults with Autism on the 91影视破解版 campus, where she helped to develop visual supports for therapy sessions so that participants can more effectively communicate.
鈥� My professors and my classmates created a family for me at Towson. 鈥�
Parker is particularly attuned to the role parents can play in developing skills to support their children. 鈥淚 would like to work as a speech-language therapist or speech educator in the Baltimore City Public Schools in a position that would allow me to help other parents.鈥� Her long-term career aspirations are even more ambitious. 鈥淯ltimately, I would like to open my own practice and develop a summer camp for children with special needs.鈥�
Parker has made contributions to the 91影视破解版 program as well. At a 91影视破解版 panel on inclusion, race and gender, Parker noted that case studies used in her curriculum never included individuals that 鈥渓ooked like me.鈥�
鈥淚 was encouraged to have this powerful conversation,鈥� which resulted in a webinar offered by Clinical Associate Professor Karen Day on assessments of African-American dialogue. 鈥淭he whole class signed up for the webinar.鈥�
Parker is now in her second year of the master鈥檚 program in speech-language pathology.