Listening with Love

Alison King’s proudest moments are when she’s helping highly hearing-impaired children learn to speak. She is an associate professor of communication disorders and program director of  Longwood University’s Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) graduate program.

“Longwood’s CSD program stands apart for three important reasons,” King says. “Support, success and smiles.” 

King has always felt drawn to the field of communication science and disorders. It was an interest that started when she was growing up in Newport, North Carolina, and had a physical education teacher whose child had hearing loss.

Now, years later, King is guiding graduate students through the ins and outs of the cochlear implant.

“Working on a cochlear implant team and helping a profoundly deaf child learn to talk as well as working with their families has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done,” says King.

King believes passing those rewarding moments on to students of the program is a powerful part of being the program director. 

“Our program is unique for its low student-faculty ratio, wide variety of clinical settings in the first year, telepractice, pediatric feeding, and Heartland Horse Heroes – an externship that students have the chance to experience when they enroll.”

King, who earned her undergraduate degree from Appalachian State University, her master’s from the University of South Carolina and her doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University, adds that she is thrilled that the demand for graduates of CSD programs is growing.

“I sit on the Board of Audiology and SLP [Speech-Language Pathology] for the state, and they conduct studies on our profession in the state,” says King. “The demand for SLPs in Virginia is growing, and compared to surrounding states, the employment for SLPs is higher.”

King is proud to report that the pass rate for program graduates who take the PRAXIS exam needed for licensure is 100 percent. Of these newly-graduated students, roughly half end up in educational settings and half end up in medical settings.

“The professors and faculty members that are part of the CSD program really care and advocate for students to have the best experience possible and become the best professionals they can possibly be. Also, we begin working with clients as soon as we begin the program and have a large variety of clinical experiences.”