Professor, Communicative Disorders
Email
Preferred: jean.novak@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-3671
Education
-
Doctor of Philosophy, Univ Of Cal-Berkeley, 1991
Licenses and Certificates
- Speech Pathologist License, California, United States, 1982
- Certificate of Clinical Competence, SLP-CCC, United States, 1982
Bio
Dr. Jean Novak is a bilingual professor in Speech Pathology and was the 1st Department
Chair of the Communicative Disorders & Sciences Department at San Jose State University.
She is a clinical supervisor for speech pathology graduate students in assessment
and therapy clinics for children with speech, language, and communication disorders.
She is Director of the Bilingual Toddler and Preschool Screening Project which is
funded by the Autism Tree Project Foundation. The screening project provides students
with training and offers the community a needed service. For over 20 years she provided
language/learning assessments in her private practice and was called as an expert
witness in litigation cases. She has worked extensively with group home children
and adolescents with behavior disorders and patients with schizophrenia, and on many
interdisciplinary projects at SJSU. Her areas of expertise and interest include:
Autism, Down Syndrome, ADHD, Central Auditory Processing Disorders, Cerebral Palsy,
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Schizophrenia, Severe Behavior Disorders, in addition to 1st
and 2nd language acquisition and cultural differences. She has publications in her
areas of expertise and has presented on the local, national, and international level
in the areas of multiculturalism and autism. She currently consults at various clinics,
rehabilitation centers and hospitals in Central Europe. She has taught and presented
internationally in Canada, England, Guam, Saudi Arabia, Poland, and most recently
in Egypt.
Her goal is to provide early identification of children with speech, language, and
communication problems so that their needs can be addressed and appropriate services
can be provided to ensure future success, especially is English is a second lanuguage.
She has spend most of her time working with bilingual parents and children from and
in different parts of the world.
She was also the owner, artistic director, and choreographer of her own ethnic dance
company (see link below), which performed for the prestigious Ethnic Dance Festival
in San Francisco, and all over the State of California and Hawaii for over 15 years,
as well as holding various multicultural positions in various organizations.
Links