For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. This June 1965 Classic article gives readers a look inside Baylor’s Speech and Hearing Clinic, where students trained to help thousands of children and adults overcome speech, hearing, and language challenges.
A four and one-half -year-old girl makes a few high pitched, monotonous sounds; her vocabulary consists of the single word, “Mama” ; her eyes are wide, not with wonder but with fear.
A twenty-four-year-old man has the speech sound-development of a five-year- old child. His hearing is normal, but he does not hear his own speech faults; yet he has a Master’s degree in engineering.
A boy of junior high school age cannot learn to read or write, although tests reveal that he has normal intelligence.
You have now entered the world of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Baylor University. During the past two years this “world” has involved two professional staff members, some 75 to 100 university students, and over 2,000 individuals served by the Speech and Hearing Clinic operated by this division of the department of Oral Communication.
The two staff members are Mrs. Willie Maye Games, acting director and associate professor of speech therapy, and the writer, Nan Norton Schmidt. Both came to the clinic in September of 1963. Mrs. Games, who holds the B.A. degree from Ouachita College and an M.A. from Louisiana State University, came from the University of Tennessee, where she was the coordinator of students in the speech and hearing clinic.
The field of Speech Pathology and Audiology is concerned with the speech, hearing, and language handicaps of over 6 1/2 million adults and over 3 million children in America alone.
It is the task of the speech pathologist and audiologist to attempt to find out why the little girl has not developed speech and language properly. Is she emotionally disturbed or mentally re tarded, or does she have a hearing loss or brain injury? Or perhaps a combination of these factors? Regardless of whether or not an exact diagnosis can be made, a program must be developed to help this child. Thus, the speech pathologist or audiologist becomes a therapist.
The problems of the other cases mentioned are equally complex. There are seldom specific “causes” to explain or rules to follow for therapy for these persons. The worker must observe their consistent behavior, report carefully what he or she sees, and attempt to find the underlying reasons to account for the conclusions reached. The worker is now a researcher, hoping to shed more light on complex and baffling problems.
But what of the families of these individuals? More than likely, the other family members do not understand these problems either; nor do they have access to helpful information. Now the worker must become a counselor. The mother is shown that her child can learn and why the child is afraid; the junior high school boy and his parents are helped to develop tolerance and understanding of each other and — most important of all — realistic goals for the child.
The Baylor Speech and Hearing Therapy students conduct therapy and diagnostic services under supervision in the Waco, La Vega, Connally, and Robinson Public Schools, the Hillsboro Treatment Center, the Veterans’ Hospitals at Waco and Temple, the Waco Crippled Children’s Rehabilitation Center, the Pilot School for the Deaf in Dallas, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church School, and the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco. In addition, diagnostic survey services, carried on by supervised students, are offered on request to schools attempting to obtain state funds for their own speech and hearing therapists.
Students of junior and senior level work with the clients. In this way they have an actual teaching-learning situation. Upon graduation they serve an internship in public schools, Veterans’ hospitals, or municipal therapy centers before becoming practicing therapists. Before they become juniors, therapy majors observe the work of the advanced students, learning therapy methods without impeding client progress.
Another interesting phase of the work is that all entering Baylor students are screened by the Clinic for speech and hearing defects or problems and provided with free therapy, if needed. Also, a program of articulation improvement and language development is offered to all international students at Baylor with troublesome foreign dialect problems.
Still another popular phase of the Clinic’s work is offered in the lip-reading and auditory training classes for adults. Many adult Wacoans avail themselves of this service. And, during the past year, a very successful and rewarding program for pre-school deaf and hard-of-hearing children was begun in cooperation with the Waco public schools.
The Clinic offers its services free of charge to Baylor students and makes a slight charge to Wacoans to cover minimum expenses of operation.
The diversity of these complex problems requires a variety of clinical tools and therapy techniques, supported by research. Before these findings and techniques can be put into practice, the student must undergo a rigorous academic as well as clinical practice-program.
The Baylor department of Oral Communication offers a major in the area of Speech and Hearing Therapy. This subdivision of Oral Communication is at present undergoing curriculum changes to meet the requirements for the Master’s degree or equivalent training level, necessary for certification of clinical competency by the American Speech and Hearing Association. These academic changes drastically increase the strain placed upon a small staff with its present limited physical facilities. As the required number of hours of therapy practice increase, adequate room space becomes a major problem. Academic advances and increased emphasis on research require much additional electronic equipment.
The clinic lacks one basic essential for an adequate training program: a soundproof suite equipped with hearing-testing instruments. Even the department toys are showing the wear and tear of surviving the hostile feelings and frustrations of the communicatively handicapped children. Frequently these feelings must be allowed to be vented before these children will communicate voluntarily. Therefore, it is necessary to have sufficient supplies to meet these increasing needs, if the program is to be professionally recognized and the clinic is to qualify as an adequate training center.
The field of Speech Pathology and Audiology offers tremendous challenge and opportunity to university students. The shining eyes and rapt facial expressions of both the therapist and the client offer convincing proof of that fact. A child who finds the ability to use his first meaningful words or the university student who finds maturity and fulfillment through these helpful services to others are the greatest rewards of the Speech and Hearing therapy training program.
It is a comparatively new field of training — one that is of growing significance to society and that offers a wide choice of career opportunities, as the demand for trained therapists in the field increases daily.
