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EMILY PATRICK
KATIE BENFIELD, SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST
In her line of work, Katie Benfield knows that she has to
use every means available to communicate with her patients,
many of whom have difficulties with the physical and psy
chological aspects of interacting with others. She calls the
technique total communication, and it entails using her hands,
face, body, voice and whatever other means she can find to
reach her patients. But Katie's commitment to communication
doesn't stop when she leaves the office. Even in her discussion
with Flagpole, she spoke with her whole being. There is no way
to transcribe hand gestures, but if we could, they would look
like two little birds gracefully flying around the print.
If Katie's work is through total communication, her lifestyle
might be summed up as “total life." She is able to stretch her
time in a way that is unusually effective. In addition to being
successful professionally, Katie is an adoptive mother, a prolific
seamstress, an actress, a musician and an active member of
Athens Church. She has been involved in what must be, by her
estimate, more than 100 stage productions in both Athens and
her native Colorado, and she has owned her own business.
Flagpole: What exactly does it mean to be a speech and lan
guage pathologist?
when a kid walks in my door, I know I'm going to learn every
thing I can about that kid—I'm going to learn how they work,
what they like, what they don't like, and how to build some
form of system of communication with them. And you always
see progress, and that's exciting.
FP: How did you decide you wanted to get into this line of
work?
KB: Well, I had a full-ride medical scholarship in Colorado,
which is where I was at. And I had a full-ride scholarship to
study medicine somewhere. So, I graduated from high school,
and I had different scholarhips. I played the French horn and
sang and did drama. But I went to Colorado State University,
and I started out as a pre-med, not really knowing, just tak
ing all the pre-med classes. And the more I got into it... I
thought, you know, "I'm going to scrap all this; I'm going
to go to acting school. Forget it." No*, I know I would have
gone into, like, architecture—that would have been the path I
would have taken... But my dad bribed me with a French horn
and said, "I'll buy you a French horn if you stay in school."
That was the clincher, and my mom suggested [speech pathol
ogy]... I never knew anything about it. I just pursued it from
the advice of my parents... and I loved every class.
Katie Benfield: You know, a lot of people don't know. And
a lot of people are surprised at the scope of what we do. I
can speak to the scope of what I do, especially in the scope
of pediatrics. I see everything from premature infants to work
on feeding and swallowing... to consultation with craniofacial
cleft palate teams in different regions... And then, the typical
things you think of. Articulation [and] language... I do devel
opmental skills as a pediatric specialist... developmental^,
getting kids from the place where they're not talking, or they're
crawling under the table and just screaming, and they're terri
fied of the world around them, to where they're able to come
out of their shell.
FP: Is it trying to see children in such difficult situations?
KB: It is. I think where I find the most difficulty—this will
sound weird—but, for example, I like to do a lot of research...
I got on YouTube the other night because I saw a blurb about
"Oh, what are "speechies," and what do we do, what do speech
therapists do?" And then there were more and more blurbs of
different kids that I would see, you know, just little video clips
of, "This is apraxia," or "This is dyspraxia" ...But, I saw these
videos and it broke my heart, because I couldn't do anything
to help them personally, and that's when my heart breaks. But
FP: You mentioned earlier that you owned your own
business for awhile. Did you not go into speech pathology
right away?
KB: Oh, no, I did... I started the company in Colorado
because there was a need for charter and magnet schools
to have outsourcing services in speech, PT, 0T, psych
and special education. So, these charter schools like
Montessori and core knowledge charter schools.
FP: How long did you do it?
KB: Eight years.
FP: Had you always lived in Colorado up until that
point?
KB: Yes.
FP: How did you decide you wanted to come to
Athens?
KB: I always tell people it was a persistent recruiter
because he kept calling over and over again, but it was
God. From Colorado [to] here, I know as I look back—
that 20/20 vision of hindsight—that everything that
I've got here has been so much of a blessing in my own
life that it's just bubbled over.
FP: Did you find you liked Athens?
KB: Yes, I love it here. Love it. And I did the one
thing I swore I wouldn't do, which was get right into
theater immediately. When I left Colorado, I was co
directing. I helped run a theater there called Industrial
Arts Theater, and when we were there, I was co-directing
Titus Andronicus.
FP: We were talking earlier about how you sew every day as a
hobby. How did you learn that skill?
KB: My mom was a seamstress when I was a baby, and
she actually became a master doll crafter and won Silver Bell
Awards, which is worldwide. She's brilliant, which is why there's
dolls around the house. I'm not a creepy doll fanatic. I'm sure
you're looking around, like, "Eww, dolls." But really, what it is
is a reflection of my mother's work, because I'm so very proud
of her, and she is a gifted artist... So, she sewed. I never really
liked it. I didn't want to do it. In my family, each one of us
is very proud of our individual characteristics... But, I didn't
like sewing. She did it a lot, but she wasn't very fast, in my
mind... The beautiful thing about sewing is the design pro
cess and pulling out fabrics that you love... in order to create
something that's unique... I've done the majority of my really
difficult sewing [since I adopted my daughter], because I've
been here at night [with her], and that's all I do. I sew. I read
technical manuals and all sorts of catalogues and design maga
zines and things like that, and I pull from different areas and
try to see what's popular and trendy and what works.
Emily Patrick
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3
SEC CHAMPIONSHIP
ON THE BIG SCREEN
UGA VS. LSU
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[WKMi
11
COMING SOON
1
NOVEMBER 30,2011 • FLAGP0LE.COM 31