Early Implants Best For Baby’s Language Progress
Thursday, May 16th, 2013In the US, two to three children in every 1000 births is born profoundly deaf, 90% to hearing families. The average age for a baby to receive a cochlear implant is falling, with research showing babies of 6 to 9 months to benefit more from the technology, than even at 12 months, and again at [...]
Florida Legislates For The Auditory-Verbal Option
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013Parents of newly-identified children who’re profoundly deaf, have a lot going on. Not least, they must make communication choices on behalf of the children, and decide how the family is going to communicate in general.
Recently, the US state of Florida passed legislation for parents to be told of all the possible communication options for deaf children. [...]
Talking With Teens Who Have Hearing Issues
Monday, April 22nd, 2013Deafness is called the ‘invisible disability’, and teens can be very reluctant to disclose what they see as a social vulnerability. A librarian who has hearing issues herself, shares some communication tips – which can be used almost anywhere a pen, paper, the internet or a mobile phone is available.
Read: Serving teens with hearing issues [...]
Introduction To Auditory Verbal Therapy (Belfast)
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013Auditory-Verbal Therapy (AVT) is a parent-centred approach to enabling children with deafness to learn to talk by listening with hearing-devices.
The UK has just 14 certified AVT therapists, and on April 27th a free 2-hour information session on AVT is being held in Belfast for parents of deaf children aged under 5. Registration is needed (details [...]
Parents’ Essential Role In Language Development
Saturday, March 30th, 2013Parents have a stronger role than researchers thought, in developing verbal language in children with hearing issues. A new study from the University of Miami shows “maternal sensitivity [has] strong and consistent effects on oral language learning”, a fact that hospital cochlear implant teams need to note.
Mom’s sensitivity helps language learning in deaf children
Dr Dana [...]
Bilateral Cochlear Implants: Hearing With Two Ears
Thursday, March 14th, 2013With bilateral cochlear implants (both ears) in Ireland’s news recently, here’s some information that may answer readers’ and families’ questions.
Read: Who is a cochlear implant candidate?
Some unilateral (single-ear) implant-wearers keep a hearing-aid in the other ear, and can recognise speech by listening through two ears. Others choose to ‘go bilateral’ with 2 cochlear implants, to [...]
Study Supports For Doctors With Hearing Issues
Tuesday, March 12th, 2013An article, “Deafness Among Physicians and Trainees: A National Survey“, in the February 2013 issue of Academic Medicine, gives insights to how doctors with hearing issues access their training and get to work in the mainstream.
Read: Are deaf/hoh physicians getting needed supports?
Amplified stethoscopes (89%) were the most frequent accommodation, with hearing-devices/FM (32%), realtime captions (21%), sign [...]
A Surgeon’s Thirty Million Words Project Research
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013Chicago-based ENT surgeon, Dana Suskind, who oversees pediatric cochlear implants, is researching a thirty-million-word gap she sees among implanted children from lower socio-economic backgrounds. By age 3, these children hear 30 million fewer words than peers from more affluent backgrounds.
With babies known to hear in the womb before birth, Suskind has a point.
Read more >> [...]
Home-Work With Children Who Have Hearing Loss
Monday, February 4th, 2013Some families turn a child’s hearing issues into a chance to find and learn language in all situations and environments, according to blogger mum, Kristen Johnson (“No Small Thing“), whose third child has hearing issues.
Read SpeechBuddy: How To Help A Child With Hearing Loss
Kristen’s top tips for parent-child communication at home:
Turn off appliances when talking with [...]
How Families Can Accept Hearing Technology
Sunday, January 20th, 2013“Hearing-aids are the avenue through which a child can listen [and learn]“, says US-based pediatric audiologist Jane Madell. Children who hear only what someone says directly in front of them, receive just 10 to 15 per cent of the information they need for incidental learning and language acquisition.
Read >> Helping Families Accept Hearing Technology
“Overhearing has [...]







