Shirley N. Sparks, M.S., CCC-SLP
While at Western Michigan University, Ms. Sparks spent a sabbatical year with the department of public health in Battle Creek, Michigan, doing home visits with public health nurses. More recently she was an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Iowa, her Master of Arts degree also in speech pathology and audiology from Tulane University, New Orleans, and completed all but her dissertation in the Ph.D. program in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Ms. Sparks was a pioneer in early intervention, working with families, home visiting, and giving numerous presentations throughout the county. She has felt strongly that it is necessary to remain a practitioner in the field to experience real problems that early interventionists encounter. Until very recently, she served as a consultant to HOPE Homestart in San José, California, a home program for children with special needs between age 0 and 3. A fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Ms. Sparks has authored training modules and many articles and chapters on early intervention and the family in addition to a book on genetics in speech-language disorders and a book on the effects of prenatal substance abuse on speech and language.