"... if all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest."

Patricia Dowden, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Clinical Assistant Professor

      Augmentative Communication
      Dysarthria

Office:(206) 616-6217 Fax:(206) 543-1093
Education & Research: Speech-Language Pathology Division
Faculty & Staff Directory
dowden@u.washington.edu
Office:(206) 616-6217 Fax:(206) 543-1093
  
WEBSITES:
   LAB WEBSITE
   http://faculty.washington.edu/dowden/
   http://depts.washington.edu/enables/
   http://depts.washington.edu/augcomm/
   http://depts.washington.edu/tcollab
   
Education & Research:
   Speech-Language Pathology Division
   Faculty & Staff Directory

Pat Dowden has been teaching the department’s courses in Augmentative & Alternative Communication for many years but she joined the faculty more full-time recently to coordinate two grants. The first was the Tools for Transformation Grant, a project designed to transform the clinical and research programs in the department through educational information exchange, community-based data collection, and interactive teaching. Since 2001, she has been coordinating a project entitled AT/AAC enABLES. The outcomes of those projects can be seen at the Tele-collaboration Web site and the AT/AAC enABLES Web site, respectively.

Prior to these grants, Pat was the coordinator of Assistive Technology at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. She received her doctorate from the University of Washington in 1992 with a dissertation focusing on listener training and severely dysarthric speech.

Pat currently teaches two courses in Augmentative Communication:

SPHSC 453: AAC for Individuals with Congenital Disorders. This 3-credit on-campus course focuses on evaluation and intervention strategies for individuals with severe congenital or developmental communication impairments. The course combines didactic lecture, online assignments and hands-on experience with equipment to prepare students to provide multi-modality solutions for individuals with severe communication impairments since birth or during early speech and language development. This course is taught summer quarter and is listed conjointly as REHAB 458.
This course is also taught as REHAB 458. This course is taught every summer.

SPHSC 454: AAC for Individuals with Acquired Disorders. This 3-credit on-campus course focuses on evaluation and intervention strategies for individuals with severe acquired communication impairments. The course combines didactic lecture, online assignments and hands-on experience with equipment to prepare students to provide multi-modality solutions for individuals with severe impairments that arise after the acquisition of speech and language skills. This course is taught winter quarter and is listed conjointly as REHAB 459.

Selected Publications

Dowden, P.A. and Cook, A. M. (2002) Selection Techniques for Individuals with Motor Impairments. In J. Reichle, D. Beukelman & J. Light (Eds.). Implementing an augmentative communication system: Exemplary strategies for beginning communicators. Baltimore, MD: Brookes

Dowden, P.A. (1999). Augmentative & Alternative Communication for Children with Motor Speech Disorders. In Caruso, A., and Strand, E. A. (Eds.) Clinical Management of Motor Speech Disorders of Children. New York: Thieme Publishing Co.

Dowden, P.A. "Index of Augmented Speech Comprehensibility in Children (I-ASCC): Development and use in AAC decision-making". Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 13 (1), March, 1997.

Community of Science: complete description of research and updated bibliography with abstracts.

Education & Research: Speech-Language Pathology Division
Faculty & Staff Directory