Executive Functions and Clinical and Academic Outcomes in Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate executive function measures as they relate to clinical and academic performance outcomes of graduate speech-language pathology students. Method An observational design incorporating correlations and stepwise multiple regressions was used to determine the strength of the relationships between clinical outcomes that occurred at various time points throughout the graduate program (clinical coursework grades throughout the program and case study paper scores at the end of the program), academic outcomes (graduate grade point average and Praxis II exam in speech-language pathology scores), and executive function (EF) scores (EF assessment scores, self-reported EF scores). Participants were 37 students (36 women, M age = 24.1) in a master's degree program in speech-language pathology at a southeastern U.S. university during the 2017–2018 academic year. Results Findings of this preliminary study indicated that a limited number of objective EF scores and self-reported EF scores were related to clinical and academic outcomes of graduate speech-language pathology students. Conclusion As results of this preliminary study suggest that EF tests may be related to clinical and academic outcomes, future research can move to study the potential role of EF measures in the graduate admissions process in clinical graduate programs such as speech-language pathology.