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By Meghan Dinger
Maggie Anderson needed help saying "s" when she was younger. When she was 3, her parents recognized the problem and placed her in speech lessons to correct it. For years, she was frequently taken out of the classroom during her favorite classes like art and physical education to go work with the speech teacher. This continued until she was 12. Some time in the second grade when she was 7, Anderson suddenly realized that the other kids weren’t leaving the classroom to get special help like her. She realized she was different. She realized she had a problem. She realized she was "stupid." Now, at the age of 22, Anderson graduated in May from Utah State University with a degree in communicative disorders and deaf education, with her emphasis in speech-language pathology.Looking back on it, she realizes that her career choice has to do with her past childhood struggles. "I went through it and I understand what it’s like," she said. "I felt stupid and I didn’t like it. I know what it’s like to feel dumb in front of others." "I know what it is like to have a lot to say without being able to express yourself." Anderson explained there are two methods for speech-language pathology treatment that she has learned in her education. The first is the pull-out method, where the students are pulled out of the classroom for individual, one-on-one time with the speech teacher. The second method is the push-in method where the students are worked with in the classroom setting with the schoolteacher and others. She favors the push-in method. Anderson feels that while some students require more individual, focused attention, the majority of students can be helped in the regular classroom with others without even knowing it. The push-in method helps with generalization, so the goals of learning can be accomplished in a classroom setting. Without having to single out the student, as Anderson was. "I know what it is like to be pulled out for speech in front of everyone, and even though most of the other kids didn’t realize what was really going on, I knew and that was hard for me," she explained. "My goal is to not have the kids know that they are being taught or made to feel as if they are stupid, but to make them think, 'Oh my gosh, I get to go and play with the coolest teacher in the school!'" she said with a laugh. "I want them to have no idea what I really do, but allow them to actually be learning when we work together." With these goals and excitement for her career field, Anderson is graduating with her degree later this week and will begin her job as a speech aide for Granite School District in Salt Lake County next Monday. She will work there for one year, gaining experience and working under a supervising speech-language pathologist. After this year, she will continue her education with a master’s degree either at Utah State University or the University of Utah. According to the COMD-DE department’s Web site, the program at USU offers three areas of study which are "clinical and educational audiology, education of the deaf and hard of hearing, and speech-language pathology." Clinical audiology deals with diagnosis and therapy of hearing difficulties, while speech-language pathology deals with "speech and language difficulties associated with a variety of causes." "Diagnosis, rehabilitation, and intervention for such problems as stuttering, voice, aphasia, articulation, swallowing and language delay are major concerns of the speech-language pathologist," the Web site explained. As for her specific field, Anderson has chosen speech-language pathology because she finds it to be more of a challenge than other areas like articulation or deaf education. "I enjoy speech pathology more because I think it is more of a puzzle," she said. "It is more creative and exciting because you can provide treatment, figuring out what is wrong and why there is a problem in the first place. Speech pathology is more lenient and inventive. "I like a challenge like that." Anderson would like to work with elementary school-aged children. "I’ve always loved kids," she said with a smile. "It’s very easy to be friends with kids. You get down to their level and they say and do some really funny things." MS |
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