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Profile of a Pioneer

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Martha Lynch and Ronald Goldman at the fifth 1996 Martha E. Lynch Lecture

Martha Lynch is truly dedicated to teaching and encouraging others to become the best teachers they can be. She has given many lectures and seminars throughout the United States and also lectured in Canada and South America. She explains, "When I was teaching graduate students at Vanderbilt University it was very apparent to me that a speech-language pathologist has to be a teacher first. Some, and I emphasize, some speech-language pathologists get upset when you refer to them as teachers, because they see themselves as 'more than that.' But to me, there's nothing better than being a teacher."

Martha continues to promote the importance of early intervention, especially to her colleagues. "Speech-language pathologists need to know how to teach reading to young children. No one was doing this in the past. They were working with adults who had lost their ability to read, but not with children. Nobody was addressing the educational needs of these young children. Consequently, my background in elementary education showed me that it could be done, and so I started teaching reading as a part of my language therapy. I've taught my own staff how to do it, and they've taught others. Through the lectures and workshops I've given over the years, I've tried to teach the same thing. There are a lot of people who are now addressing the needs of these language disordered children who are in academic distress. ASHA [the American Speech-Language Hearing Association] has also issued a statement about our responsibility towards literacy. Fortunately, more and more speech-language pathologists are moving in that direction."

Martha feels it is important to bridge the gap between therapy and the classroom. In her practice she not only provides therapy for communication disorders, but she tutors children in academics, particularly in reading and writing. "I have always tried to make classroom teachers and the education community aware of the problems of kids who have communication difficulties, and speech-language pathologists in the schools aware of the academic needs of these children." She adds, "We need to become a part of their educational system."

Throughout her career, Martha has received awards and recognition for her advocacy and service to others. A couple of years ago she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Tennessee Association of Audiologists and Speech/Language Pathologists (TAASLP). At the time she was recovering from major eye surgery and was asked to have breakfast with two friends. She did not know that she would end up at the state convention for their awards breakfast. There they presented her with an award. Martha recalls, "When they gave me the award they called me a pioneer. All I could picture in my mind was a little old lady sitting in a wagon wearing a bonnet." Needless to say, that was not the image she had of herself.

When asked about the recognition she has received, Martha says, "I don't view myself as others do. I see myself as a regular person that does not deserve that much honor or acclaim. I am just grateful that God has given me the opportunity to serve others."

Eleven years ago, the Bill Wilkerson Hearing & Speech Center announced as part of its 40th anniversary their first annual guest lecture series. This lecture series was named in honor of Martha Lynch. The late Dr. Freeman McConnell, one of Martha's mentors and a former director of the center, said of her, "[Martha's] tenure of more than a decade on the staff of Bill Wilkerson, where she served as chief speech-language pathologist, was marked by meticulous organizational skills, a high sense of duty, and most of all, an unequivocal commitment to high professional standards in serving communicatively disordered patients."

Four years ago the center merged with Vanderbilt University and became the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences. To date, the Annual Martha E. Lynch Guest Lecture Series has brought in 36 speakers to discuss subjects of particular interest to school speech-language pathologists.

The series "was designed for the continuing education needs of speech-language pathologists," explains Kate Carney, the public relations coordinator for the center. She credits Martha with "affecting thousands of children's lives—including myself." That's because back in 1965, when Kate was four years old, she was part of the original Goldman-Lynch study. She received phonemic visual oral association tutoring directly from Martha as part of a sample of children who did not have language disorders. She remembers the lessons and being able to read before she entered school.

"Forty to seventy people attend each seminar in the Nashville area. It's a good thing we do for the community. People are generally very pleased with the sessions and grateful for the information," Kate adds. Three lectures have been scheduled to date for the upcoming series. Melissa Kirby will speak on voice disorders in children in December 2001; Ann Sanders will discuss state eligibility requirements for special education services in March 2002; and Kathleen Whitmire will examine changes in IDEA in April 2002. A fourth lecture will be announced later.

Martha was very honored and surprised by the creation of the lecture series. She tries to attend every lecture she can. She has also been a presenter.

After almost forty years of "teaching," Martha is amazed by the number of students she's worked with—and now finds herself working with her students' children. Loved by so many, Martha often receives invitations to weddings and graduations. The fact that she's invited to participate in many important milestones of her students' lives speaks volumes.

Martha recalls one family in particular. "A mother of a child I was working with had dyspraxia, as did her child. I told her she really needed to be in therapy at the same time as her son in order to make the best use of his correction. She enrolled. One day she called me right before her session to say she couldn't wait to talk to me . . . She told me that today—for the first time in her whole life—she called a doctor's office and made her own appointment. 'They could understand me,' she said."

When asked about what has been the most rewarding part of her career, Martha replies, "Seeing my students come in and make strides in therapy and apply the skills they've learned is what it's all about. For many of these individuals what they learn has a great impact on their present and their future. Knowing this is enough to keep me going, even on those difficult days."