FIRST YEARS - Professional Development through Distance Education

FIRST YEARS > Units of Study: Courses

FIRST YEARS uses Sakai to manage our "virtual classroom." Each course features lesson topics, or "learning units" or "modules," which typically span one or two weeks. Each unit introduces the topic, gives assigned readings, and lists required activities in which you will participate. Everything you need to complete your exercises will be with each lesson unit.

Our course demo covers the features you can expect to see in the certificate courses. Upon enrollment, you will be Quality Matters 2007 required to complete an orientation, allowing you to practice the online features used in our courses.

The FIRST YEARS courses (below) are offered for academic credit. The five courses listed below are taken in sequence, one a semester beginning in the fall session. FIRST YEARS course material has received Quality Matters* recognition.

An overview of relevant issues in educating young children with hearing loss, with the focus on the early childhood population from birth to 8 years. 3 credit hours.

Unit 1. Working with Families and Teams
Unit 2. Audiology Interpretation
Unit 3. Basic Speech Acoustics
Unit 4. Hearing Technologies (part 1, hearing aids, FM systems; part 2, cochlear implants)
Unit 5. Normal Aspects of Speech, Language and Auditory Development
Unit 6. Emergent Literacy

Behavioral and physiologic assessment of hearing in children and how these measures are used in aural habilitation. Fundamentals of hearing instrument technology including the selection and fitting of hearing aids and cochlear implants. 4 credit hours.

Unit 1. Development of the Hearing Mechanism
Unit 2. When Something Goes Wrong: Hearing Loss in Children & Its Causes
Unit 3. Newborn Hearing Screening & Follow Up
Unit 4. Audiological Assessment
Unit 5. Amplification Options
Unit 6. Cochlear Implants

Fundamentals of speech production including the acoustic characteristics of normal and disordered speech. 2 credit hours.

Unit 1. Acoustic Phonetics: What and Why?
Unit 2. The Primary Acoustic Dimensions of Sound, or Wow! Look What Your Ears Can Do!
Unit 3. The Mechanics of Sounds in English: Sources and Filters
Unit 4. Acoustic Correlates of Consonants
Unit 5. Speech Perception

Typical auditory, speech and language development, impact of hearing loss on listening and spoken language acquisition, assessment, strategies/techniques, and intervention for children, birth-8 years, who are deaf/hard of hearing. 3 credit hours.

Unit 1. Foundations: Speech, Language and Auditory Development
Unit 2. Auditory Development, Assessment, and Facilitation of Auditory Learning
Unit 3. Normal Language Development: Foundations
Unit 4. Tracking Language Development

Unit 4A. Tracking Language Development: The Roadmaps, Part A
Unit 4B. Tracking Language Development: From Theory to Practice, Part B

Unit 5. Language Development: Assessment and Intervention
Unit 6. Speech Development, Assessment and Intervention

The definition, characteristics, and theoretical bases of emergent literacy and their application at home and at school to facilitate the development of literacy skills. 3 credit hours.

Unit 1. Hearing and Literacy: Why They are Important and How Hearing Makes Literacy Easier
Unit 2. Theories of Literacy: What Is Known Currently About How Reading and Writing Work?
Unit 3. Spoken Language: Making the Move from Speaking to Reading and Writing
Unit 4. Learning to Read: How to “Normalize” the Process
Unit 5. Learning to Write: How to Work with Writing Along with Reading
Unit 6. What Can Be Accomplished? And Other Questions …

The UNC Registrar's Office maintains listings of academic calendars, including semester schedules. For information relating specifically to FIRST YEARS registration, see our pages on Admission/Registration/Tuition.

An integral component of the FIRST YEARS certification program is a planned, "hands on" mentored experience at carefully selected centers and schools across the nation. The timing and duration of the mentored experience is designed to ensure optimal integration of the certificate instruction into professional practice.

To learn more about mentorship requirements for students, see Participating in the Mentorship Experience.

To learn more about site mentorship requirements, see Becoming a Mentorship Site.

* This logo recognizes that course material has met FIPSE Quality Matters review standards. The Quality Matters program is a faculty-centered peer course review Quality Assurance process. Review criteria are linked to external standards; criteria and process are supported through instructional design principles; and the process is vetted by faculty experts.

Alexander Graham Bell Association | UNC-CH Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences