Undergraduate Honors Thesis Option

The Communication Sciences and Disorders Department does not offer specific sets of courses in the Honors College. What we can offer a student is the opportunity to complete an honors thesis in the their junior and senior years. Completion of an undergraduate honors thesis allows a student to gain research skills in the fields of speech, language, and hearing sciences. As shown below, many of our past undergraduate students who have completed an honors thesis have secured funding to attend graduate school.

Requirements

A student must have a GPA of 3.50.

A student must complete two courses for honors credit in Communication Sciences and Disorders. These courses are typically taken in the spring of a student’s junior year. A student then completes a thesis under the guidance of a mentor who is a faculty member in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The thesis is typically completed in a student’s senior year.

Recent Titles of Honors Theses

 

Williams, K. G. (projected, 2024). Understanding social participation in aphasia: Surveying individual perspectives across WHO-ICF domains.

Betzer, L. (2023). Effectiveness of static versus dynamic language assessments.

Sanders, J. (2021). Listeners' perception of children and adult’s word-final /l/. 

de Mahy, L. (2018).  A vowel perceptual analysis of three regional dialects of Louisiana.

Holley, A. (2017). Preschool alphabet and word learning: Are visual representations beneficial?Accepted into the graduate program in COMD at LSU.

Dupre, B. (2017). Music and memory: Effects on language quantity and agitation in people with dementia. Accepted into graduate school in COMD at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Moore, A. (2017). Gender-related differences in child speakers’ use of nonmainstream English dialect forms. Accepted into graduate school in COMD at LSU.

Pinas, C. (2017). Can individualized music reduce agitation and increase meaningful communication in dementia center clients? Accepted into graduate school in Speech-Language Pathology at Rush University.

Ball, K. (2015). Grammatical morphology in a child with Autism. Accepted into graduate school in COMD at LSU.

Smitherman, H. (2012). Children’s nonword repetition skills as a function of their race and clinical status. Secured funding to attend graduate school in COMD at LSU.

Deville, M. (2011). The relation between children’s socioeconomic status and their performance on the passive subtest of the DELV-NR. Secured funding to attend graduate school in COMD at LSU.

Maqsood, Z.(2010). Item analysis of the grammar subtests of the CDI: Words and Sentences for African American children. Accepted into graduate school in COMD at Southern University.

Gary, C. M. (2010). Mothers’ speech to infants with and without Down syndrome. Secured funding to attend graduate school in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Memphis.

Sewell, A. (2010). The relation between two caregiver questionnaires about children’s early literacy experiences. Accepted into the graduate program in COMD at LSU.

Lalonde, K. (2009). Effects of dichotic interaural intensity difference training on children with auditory processing deficits. Secured funding to attend the Ph.D. program in Speech and Hearing Science at Indiana University.

Huckabee, H. (2008). The development of intentionality, vocabulary, and grammar in a child with autism. Secured funding to attend graduate school in COMD at LSU.

Walker, E. (2006). A five-year study of risk factors in infant hearing screening. Secured funding to attend graduate school in Audiology at Vanderbilt University.

Gonzales, A. (2004). The social interaction skills of a child with autism. Secured funding to attend graduate school in Speech-Language Pathology at UT-Austin.

Fontenot, L. (2003). Cajun English: A study of monophthongization. Secured funding to attend graduate school in Speech-Language Pathology at Purdue.

Bailey, M. (2000). Communicative strategies of nonfluent aphasics: A comparison between strategies used in structured tasks vs. those used during conversation. Secured funding to attend graduate school in Audiology at the University of Memphis.

Cavell, C. (1999). Children’s zero-marking of copula/auxiliary be: A comparison of two nonmainstream dialects.