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5-year-old Mary Austin came to the Conley Speech and Hearing Center two years ago. In that time, her mom, Ellen, has seen some remarkable progress.
Ellen Austin, Mother of Conley Center Client:
"When she arrived, she had a moderate to severe phonological disorder and I've been very impressed by how far she's come in such a short period of time. The graduate students are very attentive to her. They design the activities to what she likes, which is crafts, which is what they're working on right now. I was so nervous to send her to kindergarten--that she wouldn't be understood, that she would be made fun of. None of that happened. She can keep right up and I'm sure it's because of what they did here. "
The Conley Center serves many purposes. It provides speech, language and audiology services to the public. It is a research center for UMaine faculty in Communication Sciences & Disorders. It also provides clinical training for graduate students who are filling a growing need.
Nancy Hall, Chairperson, Communication Sciences & Disorders:
"Our program is the only program in the state of Maine both at the bachelor's level and the master's level. So, in terms of educating professionals for the state of Maine, we're it for the most part. Our students, when they graduate with a master's degree, 100% of them get jobs. Anywhere from 85-100% of our students take jobs in the state of Maine. So, they are graduating from this program and they're moving directly to jobs in the state."
Undergrads in the program learn the principles of communication science and observe clinical professionals at work. The graduate students are helping to provide therapy--learning the subtle combination of art and science that helps solve communication and language problems.
Susan Riley, Clinical Director, Conley Speech, Language and Hearing Center:
"There is an intuitive, artful piece to providing therapy. I think anybody who's a good clinician has strong interpersonal skills. They are good at relationship building--creating a safe environment for the client to do some very difficult things. The science behind it all comes from a strong research base in the profession."
A key part of the Conley Center is the audiology clinic, where Amy Booth serves some 750 clients a year--diagnosing hearing problems, designing and fitting hearing aids.
Amy Booth, Clinical Audiologist, Conley Center:
"At the undergraduate level in speech language pathology, there are so many hours required in what we think would reflect a good education. So, they have to acquire so many hours in audiology, so that when they come across a client that has a hearing loss, they have a global understanding of what went into that hearing loss--what problems it causes in communication, how does that affect them, how might they help with a hearing aid."
For grad student Robbie Desjardins, learning the art and science of being a speech language pathologist will allow him to take his education back home to Fort Kent, where he hopes to work with school-aged children.
Robbie Desjardins, Graduate Student:
"Every time I help a patient or a client achieve something that they've wanted to achieve or to gain back something that they've lost, that just re-affirms why I went into the major."
