Emerson College Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders

On Saturday, 5/9/2026, our CSD and Health and Social Change undergraduate students participated in a graduation ceremony and all-college commencement. We offer our congratulations and best wishes as you follow your next path! 💜

Thank you again to our departmental faculty, adjunct faculty, and staff for your work with teaching and mentoring our undergraduates!

On Friday, 5/8/2026, our CSD graduates from both residential and distance education modalities in the December 2025, May 2026, and August 2026 cohorts participated in the School of Communication Graduate Hooding Ceremony at the Boch Center in Boston. On behalf of the CSD Department we want to congratulate all of the graduates on for their hard work, diligence, and determination to earn their Master’s degrees. We celebrated their success in a reception prior to the ceremony. Thank you also to all of the faculty, staff, and facilitators for their dedication to teaching, supervising, mentoring, and supporting our students on their path to becoming the next generation of Speech-Language Pathologists.
Here are just a few pictures from the day!

Congratulations!! 🎉 🥳👏

Please congratulate our 8 students who presented their work as part of their thesis. Students have worked diligently over the past year, completing research, gathering information, analyzing the data, and drawing conclusions. Sincere thank you to our thesis coordinator, Rhiannon Luyster!

Students and their topics are listed below:

LiT+LE Lab with Dr. Rhiannon Luyster and Dr. Lisa Wisman Weil https://little.emerson.edu

Emma Beaulieu, "Examining Early Intervention: Factors Associated with Parent Experience and Family Well-Being Across Diagnostic Pathways"

Casey Schulkind, "Developmental trajectories of unconventional language: a longitudinal analysis from early childhood to early adulthood"

Brooke Bourgeois, "Parents’ Perceptions of the Role of Music in Children’s Learning from Screen-Based Media: A Mixed-Methods Study Comparing Autistic and Non-Autistic Children"

Grace Flanagan, "Who makes the cut? Autistic children with less language have higher rates of track loss on gaze tracking tasks"

Lerato Mensah-Aborampah, "What are parents' perceptions of the impact of screen media on the development of play in their children? Does this differ for autistic and non autistic children?"

Gabriela Spizale, "The Favorite Interests of Autistic and Nonautistic Preschoolers: A Descriptive Study"

FACE Lab with Dr. Ruth Grossman https://facelab.emerson.edu

Gabriela Garcia, “Topic Adherence and its Impact on Conversational Behaviors of Autistic Children”

Dr. Robin Danzak and Dr. Maryam Salehoumoun

Maya Nakkoul, “The Invisibility and Hyper-Visibility Paradox and MENA Health/Disability Information Seeking Behaviors”

Thank you also to thesis committee members who supported and contributed to the review of the thesis work! 💜

The ASL Club officers gave Emerson a truly rewarding experience by hosting an ASL evening on April 9th, where students socialized for the beginning of this event which brought ASL students, Club officers, and professors into one community. After that, we all gathered at the Semel Theatre with excitement to watch Andrew Fisher, a Deaf comedian, along with his voice interpreter. The event brought the whole community together with lots of laughter.

Final post regarding Immersion! Our students had the opportunity to build community and make connections with each other and with members of the CSD Department. We truly appreciate being able to see you in person! 💜💛

We also want to acknowledge members of our department who organized and prepared for all aspects of Immersion. AND we need to thank our Immersion Support Specialists…we could not do this work without you! We value your commitment to our students and program.
💜💛

On Day 3 of Immersion, our students participated in a variety of sessions including:
*counseling experiential
*labs where they engaged in hands on practice: oral mech exam, aided language, and tracheostomy primer
*discussion based learning in language, culture, and you and d/Deaf culture and ASL.

Huge thank you to Lindsay Griffin and Amanda Warren for bringing a new session to Immersion: laryngoscopy and practice mixing thickener into liquids using the IDDSI guidelines.

Day 2 of Immersion brought hands on practice opportunities for students with Dialogic Reading and hearing/preschool screenings. Students also role played being a client and then reflected on how it felt. These activities are designed to support learning and application of knowledge prior to heading out to their first clinical practicum.

In addition, students received more information regarding placement including policies, resources, and a success map.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GrmaKkjw9/?mibextid=wwXIfr

🎉 Celebrating an Outstanding Achievement 🎉

We are thrilled to congratulate Casey Schulkind (Emerson College CSD Class of 2026) on being selected as the Master’s-level recipient of the Plural Publishing Research Scholarship ($3,000), awarded by the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CAPCSD).

This prestigious award, presented in honor of Dr. Sadanand Singh, supports exceptional graduate student research in communication sciences and disorders—and Casey’s work truly stands out.

Her thesis, “Developmental trajectories of unconventional language: A longitudinal analysis from early childhood to early adulthood,” highlights the kind of meaningful, impactful research that advances our understanding of language development across the lifespan.

We are incredibly proud to see Casey’s dedication and scholarship recognized at this level and look forward to all the important contributions she will continue to make in the field.

👏 Congratulations, Casey!