Novak, Jean M

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