New Adjunct Faculty Member: Joy Gatten-Blixt

Audiologist and speech language pathologist Joy Gatten-Blixt (M. Sc. T.) delivered a guest lecture to the Audio Production & Engineering students here at Metalworks Institute in the MWI Lecture Hall on Monday October 6, 2008.

Joy is a registered audiologist and speech-language pathologist (S-LP) with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario. Over the past 20 years, she has worked in a variety of positions including regional audiologist, school-based S-LP, clinical audiologist, educator, consultant, and technical support supervisor.

Joy began her lecture with a thorough explanation of the human ear and how it interprets sound, and discussed the importance of healthy ears and regular check ups, a vital topic for students planning a career based in audio.

Joy continued on with an in-depth discussion of the audible frequencies that the human ear can hear, as well as how to keep your ears healthy, what can cause damage to your hearing (relating the causes to everyday sounds and their decibel level), which frequencies are most commonly lost due to damage, and most importantly, how to protect our ears from the everyday dangers our hearing is susceptible to.

It was quite obvious that the students were intrigued by both the subject matter and Joy’s interaction with them, especially during the exercises that she prepared for the lecture. The students then engaged Joy in a lengthy Q & A session which yielded a plethora of important and pertinent information. Joy concluded her lecture by handing the students pamphlets and diagrams containing further information and resources.

Joy Gatten-Blixt was an engaging, entertaining and very informative guest speaker, and we would like to extend our thanks to her.