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. [...]
Deano – The Gift Of A Hearing Dog
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013Random conversations can be life-changing, often without our knowledge. In October 2010, a lady asked IDK if Hearing Dogs are trained in Ireland. She has severe bilateral hearing issues and believed a trained dog would restore some independence by alerting her to everyday sounds in her environment.
Knowing most Hearing Dogs are trained in the UK, [...]
A Nurse With Hearing Issues Retrains In Audiology
Monday, April 29th, 2013Nursing – and audiology. Two degrees that a deaf person might not think of, or be encouraged to take. Zoe Williams, of Ballarat, Victoria (Australia), has changed that perception. Now a qualified audiologist, she shares her story.
See / Read >> A Day In The Life of An Audiologist
Zoe says she doesn’t have anything more to [...]
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 [...]
Lip-Reading Challenges In The Hearing World
Friday, April 5th, 2013Having to verbally ”translate” for signing deaf friends who do not lip-read, confirmed this skill to Rachel Kolb, a masters student at Stanford University in California. She writes eloquently here, about the challenges of lip-reading.
Read>> Seeing At The Speed Of Sound
Lip-reading is a very under-rated skill. When hearing-devices are off, it can be the ideal back-up [...]
“He Is Not Me”: A Book On Mainstream Education
Monday, March 25th, 2013A new book, “He Is Not Me”, by Stuart McNaughton, tells the story of being deaf from birth – and opting for a cochlear implant in his twenties. Notably, Stuart’s parents mainstream-educated him, to equip him with real-world skills from the very start – with the support of teachers and professionals.
Read >> He Is Not [...]
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 [...]
California Student Seeks Captions Instead Of FM
Friday, March 8th, 2013In 2009, a California-based high school student with a cochlear implant asked her school district to provide realtime captions in class, instead of a FM system, which she said gave her headaches and relayed static noise. At end-2012, the case was reopened with a similar, second case in the state.
Read: Student asks Tustin schools to [...]