Piedmont University Professor, Student Co-Author Study Accepted to International Academic Journal

Piedmont student Jaycie Ponce, left, and Communication Sciences and Disorders Program Director Dr. Monica Bellon Harn have co-authored a study, along with speech-language pathologist Rebecca Hancock, that will be published in The Cleft-Palate Craniofacial Journal.

Piedmont University’s still-new Communication Sciences and Disorders program continues to make a name for itself, this time with a study to be published in The Cleft-Palate Craniofacial Journal, a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, international publication.  

The article, titled “A cross-sectional descriptive analysis of speech, hearing, and feeding in YouTube videos: A brief communication” was co-authored by Communication Sciences and Disorders Program Director Dr. Monica Bellon Harn, student Jaycie Ponce, and Rebecca Hancock, a speech-language pathologist who works for Union County Schools.

The publication is the outcome of research Ponce conducted over the past year looking at the content and quality of online information currently available to parents of children born with cleft lips and palates. The findings give direction to clinicians on the limitations and uses of YouTube videos during family counseling.

“This is a huge accomplishment for Jaycie, to have research accepted into such a well-respected publication while still at the undergraduate level,” Bellon Harn said.

Ponce, Bellon Harn and Hancock will also present the study at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s annual convention in November.

Piedmont launched its Bachelor of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders program in 2021 and is on track to offer a Master of Science program in the field beginning in fall 2023, pending approval from the Council of Academic Accreditation. More than 40 students have already applied for the master’s degree program.

Plans are also underway for a speech pathology clinic on the Demorest campus. The clinic will be open to the community and will offer students real-life training opportunities.

“We’re very excited about what we’re building here at Piedmont with the Communication Sciences and Disorders program,” Bellon Harn said.

Learn more at piedmont.edu/program/communication-sciences-disorders.