3 Myrtle L. Aron Claire Penn, Ph.D (Witwatersrand) Head, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Professor Myrtle Lily Aron retired this year after over thirty six years service to the profession of Speech Pathology and Audiology in South Africa. These four decades have been some of the most exciting and influential in the history of South Africa and the development and growth of the profession during this time reflects the qualities, leadership and insight of a person particularly sensi- tive to the changing times and the needs of the country and its people. She was born in 1929 on the East Rand, during the depression, and though she rarely makes reference to these difficult times, it is certain that her early childhood made her particularly sen- sitive to the needs of less privileged sectors of the population. She attended the University of the Witwatersrand as a student in the sub-Department of Logopedics and its Speech Voice and Hearing Clinic under Professor Ρ de V Pienaar, obtaining her BA Logopedics in 1953. She continued to work in this Department as an assistant supervisor until 1954 when she left for a year to work as a clinical speech therapist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Canada. She returned to South Africa and in 1956 embarked on her research for her Master's degree which involved an investigation of the nature and incidence of stuttering among a Bantu group of school-going children. This research, culminating in the award of a Master of Arts Cum Laude in 1959, was a seminal work in the area of stuttering and its measurement. Still frequently cited in current stutter- ing tests, its findings as well as its rigorous attention to metho- dological issues placed South Africa on the map in the field of stuttering. Her research forj her doctoral degree which was awarded in 1964, was on the effects of the combination of trifluoperazine and amyloba'rbitcme on adult stutterers. While her research and teaching activities moved to other areas after this degree, her keen interest in the area of stuttering remained and was nowhere more evident than in the organization and planning of the Department's Jubilee International Stuttering Conference held at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1986. While undertaking her research, she was employed in the sub- Department as a clinician and assistant supervisor (1956- 1958) and then as a clinical lecturer and tutor (1959-1964). In 1964 she was awarded an Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust award and a Fullbright Hayes Travel grant in order to study in the field of Audiology in the United States. She spent a year at the University of Pittsburg and visiting training institu- tions in the United States and the United Kingdom. On her return to South Africa, she developed new courses in Audio- logy and her influence in this aspect in the profession con- Die Suid-Afrikaansc Tydskrif \ir Kommitiiikitsirafirykiiiys, Vol. 37, 1990 tinued to grow and develop. She was very active in the needs of the deaf in South Africa and has written memory ndi#oη early intervention for the infant and young hearing impaired. She was a member of the Audiological Technical Committee and steering committee on Acoustics and Noise Abatement for the South African Bureau of Standards, and a fellow of the South African Acoustics Institute. Her Inaugural Lecture, delivered in 1974, was entitled Com- munication for the Hearing Impaired - Some Plain Talk, and presented some hard-hitting facts about the nature of deaf education in the country and some clear directions for its improvement. A significant step in her career and acknowledgement of her abilities came when the sub-Department gained full status in July 1971 and became the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. Shortly thereafter she was appointed as full Professor and Head of the Department and Director of the Speech and Hearing Clinic, a post which she held until her retirement earlier this year. This acknowledgement of the Department's independent status more or less coincided with the move of the Department, previously housed in the library basement and then in Yale Cottage, to its present location - the Social Sciences block. Just as she was instrumental in creating the Department spiri- tually, it is true to say that her role in the physical development of the new Department was pivotal. She was involved in each step of its design and its construction and it has served as an impressive model for later student training facilities in this country. Besides the many hundreds of undergraduate students who have passed through her hands and who will remember her lectures in a wide range of topics, she has been involved wit! the supervision of many postgraduate students. Her keen inte rests in research methodology, together with her experience and her insights, both academic and emotional, were highl} valued by her postgraduate students. Her involvement in the University and in broader issue: related to the community has been tireless. She stood on £ number of important University committees, including the Boards of the Faculties of Arts and Medicine. She resisted fre quent attempts by the University to change the Faculty ο affiliation, and its close and lasting relationship to the Arts Faculty has been the hallmark of the course at Wits and ofter the envy of other Departments both locally and inter nationally. This close link with the humanities and with th« disciplines of Psychology and Linguistics particularly is a reflec tion of her attitude to life and particularly to rehabilitatior £ SASH A 199C R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) 4 Claire Penn Other University committees on which she served during her career were the Higher DegreesCommittee, the Human Ethics Research Committee, the Executive Committee of Convoca- tion, and the Senate Publications Committee, as well as several scholarship awards committees. Professor Aron's long involvement in community issues has perhaps been nowhere more evident than in her efforts through the South African Speech-Language-Hearing Asso- ciation to establish the two-year Diploma course for Speech and Hearing Therapy community workers. This course, which started at Wits University in 1984, was the first of its kind in the world. Its aim was to train persons who could iden- tify and manage the communication problems of the broader community in South Africa particularly in the rural'areas. This has proven to be very successful and at least 46 Diploma graduates are now working in the field and providing a very important service to populations previously having no help. Her own research and energy in this field has done a lot to establish the groundwork for this course and has provided directions for course content, training and employment op- portunities. This has included field trips to Gazankulu and the Transkei where she has examined the need for essential ser- vices set up networks and set up long-term research plans. She is also a founder member of RURACT (Rural Disability Action Group) and a member of the working group to consider an institute of urban primary health care based on the Alexandra Health Centre. She was also requested to act as chairman of a coordinating committee of senior persons from the professions of Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Speech Therapy and Audiology to explore and establish community rehabilita- tion education and training of rehabilitation workers in South Africa. Her efforts in this regard have been publicized inter- nationally and have been presented at the International Asso- ciation of Logopedics and Phoniatrics congresses in Tokyo (1986) and in Czechoslovakia (1989). The course has been a model, not only for other professions but also for workers in other countries. It was also through her efforts that the Unit for Language- and Hearing-Impaired Children was established at the University. Now housed at the Transvaal Memorial Institute this facility provides facilities for a number of preschool children who require a specially integrated approach to rehabilitation. For a long time the only such Unit in the Transvaal, it has provided an exceptional training and research facility for students and become a nationally recognized facility addressing a desperate shortage in this country. Professor Aron also instituted a long-term research pro- gramme on the development and maintenance of a com- puterized information retrieval programme of case data on communication disorders. This has been supported since 1975 by the Human Science Research Council and the pro- gramme has been extended to include case data on a national basis. This programme has successfully recently been trans- ferred to the Human Sciences Research Council. In p'rofessional issues, Professor Aron has been active through- out her career. She was a student representative of the South African Logopedic Society in 1952 and the chairman of the first national Speech Therapy congress in 1953 as well as chairman of its academic activities committee. She has had many periods of chairmanship of the S A Speech-Language- Hearing Association (formerly the S A Speech and Hearing Association) as well as editor of its journal (S A Journal of Communication Disorders) and its monthly newsletter.She was elected as president of SASLHA in 1978. She has been regular chairman of standing committees of SASLHA to con- sider ethical, professional and training problems and is cur- rently chairman of the research committee to promote and ' coordinate research in the field in Southern Africa. A bursary scheme administered by SASLHA was started in her name for students studying at universities in South Africa - a very fitting tribute for one who has so long been involved in student issues and concerns. She was a founder member of the Council of Allied Medical Professions and was appointed as first chair- man of the Professional Board for Speech Therapy and Audiol- ogy of the South African Medical and Dental Council - a position she has held from its establishment in 1976 until the present. By request of this Board she drew up a memorandum on facilities and training for the J C de Villiers Committee of Enquiry into Further Facilities for Medical, Dental and Para- medical Training in 1984. Her international contacts have been very important for the professional in South Africa and it is undoubtedly largely due to her efforts and her representa- tion in Washington DC in 1980, in Tokyo in 1986, at meetings of the International Association of Phoniatrics and Logope- dics, together with contact with the American Speech- Language-Hearing Association from international participa- tion. She has friends and colleagues all over the world and has lec- tured and travelled in Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Canada and the United States. The Department and its graduates have an international reputation and the high quality of its training is world renowned. Myrtle Aron has been a leader in all fields of her profession. The hallmark of her contribution has been a clear and prin- cipled direction, a vision and an integrity. She has fought many battles, and has achieved widespread respect. She has done more than anyone to gain the profession its independent auto- nomous status. She has been an inspiration to all those she has taught and has set the highest standards for energy and dedica- tion. Her planned activities during her retirement thankfully mean continued involvement in many aspects such as teaching and research, and it is with gratitude that those of us who have to follow still have her direction, wisdom and experience vto' guide us. ' i LIST OF PUBLICATIONS OF MYRTLE L. ARON (Not including abstracts, reviews, formal addresses, reports, ' memoranda, unpublished conference papers or commenta- ries) Aron, M.L. Stuttering therapy - an integration of speech therapy and psychotherapy../. S.A. Loi/opedic Society, 4, 1, 3-8, 1957. Bauman, S & Aron, M.L. Research needs in speech pathology. /. S.A Loyopedic Satiety, 6, 2, 1-5, 1960. Aron, M.L. The nature and incidence of stuttering among a Bantu group of school-going children../. Speech and Hearinq Disorders (US). 27, 2, 116-128, 1962. ' x Aron, M.L. The effects of the combination of trifluoperazine and amylobarbitone on adult stutters. Medical Proceedini/s, 11, 10, 227-237, 1965. / Aron, M.L., Bauman, S. & Whiting, D. Speech-therapy in the Republic of South Africa: its development training and organization of services. British /. Disorders of "'Communication, 2, 1, 78-83, 1967. The South African Journal of Communication Disorders, Vol. 37, 1990 R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) Myrtle L. Aron Aron, M.L. Communication problems of the handicapped child. Pro- ceedings of the National Conference on the Hadicapped Child, Transoranje Institute, Pretoria, 1967. Aron, M.L. The relationship between measurements of stuttering behaviour../. S.A Logopedic Satiety, 14, 15-34, 1967. Aron, M.L. Hearing screening and testing in infancy. Public Health, 72, 11, 335-341, 1972. Aron, M.L. Pierre de Villiers Pienaar (Festschrift)../. S.A Speech and Hearing Association. 20, 7-13, 1973. Aron, M.L. Approaches to the pre-school hearing impaired child. In Proceedings of the National Symposium on the organization of com- prehensive autliological services in South Africa. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Stellenbosch, Cape, 34- 42, 1974. Aron, M.L. Communication for the hearing impaired - some plain talk. Inaugural Lecture. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannes- burg, 1974. Aron, M.L. Language communication for the hearing impaired child: A perspective strategy. Talk (Royal National Deaf Children's Society), 86, 19-22, 1978. Aron, M.L. Concepts underlying the develoment of a computer infor- mation retrieval programme for research in communication disorders. British J. Disorders of Communication, 16, 2, 89- 100, 1981. Aron, M.L. The development of an information retrieval programme for various communication disorders. In Proceedings of the 18th International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics Congress, Washington, D C, August 1980, published as special edition by Folia Phoniatrica, 1981. Anderson, D & Aron, M.L. Incidence and sex distribution of specific articulatory errors derived from a computerized information retrieval programme. Humanitas. 9, 3, 365-374, 1983. Aron, M.L. Community work and speech therapy. In Proceedings of the symposium on the role of the speech therapist in a multilingual society, Pretoria July 1984. University of Pretoria, 10-16, 1984. 5 Aron. M.L. Editor. The South African J. of Communication Disorders, 1971-1980, and 1984-1985. Aron, M.L. Community Speech and Hearing Therapy: Orientation and training. Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Tokyo, Japan: Folia Phoniatrica 1986. Aron. M.L., Smit, W. & Allsopp, P. W1PCOM Manual for the com- puterized information retrieval programme of case data on com- munication disorders. Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1986, ISBN 0854949178. Aron, M.L., Lewis, R.E. & Willemse ,J.L. The use of signs and the cod- ing of prefix markers at a school for the deaf. S.A. Jnl. Com- munication Disorders, 33: 64-72, 1986. Aron, M.L. Community-based rehabilitation for communication dis- orders. Proceedings of the S.A. Speech and Hearing Association National Conference, Pretoria, 1987. Aron, M.L. Data Bank of Communication Disorders. Research Bulletin, 33-38, 1987. Aron, M.L. Opening keynote address of Audiology Congress. Pro- ceedings of the Audiology Congress, Cape Town, 1988. Aron, M.L. Communication rehabilitation for the hearing impaired adult with an acquired hearing loss. Proceedings of the Audiology Congress, Cape Town. 1988. Aron, M.L. Rehabilitative procedures with the hearing impaired adult. Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Prague, Czechoslovakia. 1989. Aron, M.L. Implementation of community speech and hearing work in disadvantaged areas. Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the Inter- national Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Prague, Cze- choslovakia, 1989. Rosebank Hearing Aids Extra Strong to Extra Small!! Suppliers of Rexton, Bosch, Viennatone and Microson Hearing Instruments. 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