A five week old named Grace swaddled in her mother’s arms at a hospital in Redding had failed two hearing tests in her first two days of life, with a follow up exam a week later indicating trouble in one ear. Evaluating her hearing within the first three months of her life was essential. If follow up tests indicated a permanent problem, she would need to be fitted with a hearing aid to have the best chance of developing normal speech and other important skills later in life. Another problem was that Grace needed a pediatric audiologist to perform the necessary tests, but they lived in a more rural area where such specialists are hard to find. Read more to learn about how tele-intervention or video conferencing technology is helping pediatric audiologists reach more children in need of these important evaluations.

Link: http://www.baycitizen.org/environmental-health/story/doctor-will-see-you-now-screen/

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has launched a new website that
provides resources for parents, providers and other professionals about
Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) for infants and
children. The site is www.improveehdi.org/mn. Parents of children who may develop hearing loss or who have confirmed
hearing loss will be able to learn about the EHDI process, find
materials that will guide them through identification and intervention,
and find hearing specialists and education resources in their area. In
addition, the site contains information to help link parents with family
and community resources available locally.

Minnesota’s EHDI website, www.improveehdi.org/mn,
was presented with the 2012 EHDI Website of the Year award at the
Eleventh Annual EHDI Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. All state EHDI
websites were reviewed by a panel of parents, EHDI coordinators, chapter
champions, and others to select the best website based on quality
content, user friendliness, and accessibility.

Link: http://www.echopress.com/event/article/id/93514/group/News/

There was a time when a child born deaf had few choices. For more
than a century, the only option for parents was to send their son or
daughter away to a boarding school for the deaf. There, the children and
the schools thrived in the shadows, embracing a distinct culture of
silent communication. Recent advances in
medicine and technology are now reshaping what it means to be deaf in
America. Children who could never hear a sound are now adults who can
hear everything. That’s having a dramatic impact on the nation’s
historic deaf schools as well as the lives of people. Read more from this NPR article that highlights the dramatic changes occuring in deaf culture due to Cochlear Implantation.

Link: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/08/150245885/cochlear-implants-redefine-what-it-means-to-be-deaf

Today is the last day to register for the
AG Bell 2012 Convention at reduced rates. The AG Bell 2012 Convention will

offer many opportunities for attendees to meet, connect and network with each other. Don’t delay in registering and having the opportunity to save some money! 

Link: http://nc.agbell.org/page.aspx?pid=1338&srctid=1&erid=2138791&trid=f8588eb5-6426-4321-8d64-19399709c6f9

If there were a poster child for cochlear implants,
Grant Phillips would be it. When Phillips was born, he was completely
deaf. After exploring several options, his parents heard about a new
procedure that had been shown to restore hearing loss at a very
successful rate. The first surgeries and FDA studies for cochlear implants,
a device that aid hearing by stimulating the cochlea in the inner ear,
were taking place right in their hometown of Indianapolis at Riley
Hospital. The problem was that the FDA had only approved the surgery for
children more than two years old. After consulting with the lead
doctor, Dr. Richard Miyamoto, the Philips’ and hospital agreed to perform
surgery on Grant when he was just 16 months old. The surgery was a success. After the recovery process, Grant began to hear and, soon after, speak.

Link: http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2012/04/02/deaf-student-uses-cochlear-implants-to-hear-learn/

Gesture-sign mismatches made while explaining a math problem suggest a
deaf child is experiencing a teachable moment, a finding that could help
their instructors become better teachers. Through a series of experiments with 40 deaf children, ages nine through
12, all of whom were fluent in American Sign Language, researchers were
able to distinguish between ASL signs and gestures that look like the
gestures hearing children produce when explaining the same math
problems. In previous work, it has been shown that gesture-speech mismatch is a clue to teachable moments in hearing children. This is a great read and a very interesting article for teachers of the deaf that in particular focus on ASL.

Link: http://www.futurity.org/society-culture/deaf-kids-learn-from-gesture-sign-misses/

WCCO-TV first met Andria on her second birthday, when she understood music and words only through sign language. WCCO followed back in fall of 1996 when they brought her to the
University of Iowa to receive a cochlear implant. At the time, some in
the deaf community disapproved. Opponents told the Warner family a child
should be old enough to choose the life altering procedure on their
own, but Laure and Gene (her parents) saw the tiny device as an opportunity. Andria’s first sounds were her own cries, and finally laughter. An
implant doesn’t restore normal hearing, but gave her the means to hear
her environment, and understand speech. Read more about this story to see how the follow up reveals the effect the implant has had on Andria’s life.

Link: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/04/03/15-years-later-wcco-visits-2-cochlear-implant-patients/

The April edition of Probes and Tips is now available

The March Edition of Probes and Tips is now available: Coordinate Rescreens with Health Care Providers. This edition includes such items as:

• Common scenarios and guidelines for when to rescreen
• Coffee break webinar info and the topic of: Coordination of Middle Ear referrals and Conducting Follow up OAE Screenings

Link: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs073/1102782899287/archive/1109565617827.html

Where’s the one place you should never kiss a baby — or anyone else?
The ear, according to a professor of audiology at Hofstra University in
Hempstead, N.Y. An innocent kiss right on the ear opening creates strong suction that
tugs on the delicate eardrum, resulting in a recently recognized
condition known as “cochlear ear-kiss injury.” Such a kiss can lead not
only to permanent hearing loss, but a host of other troubling ear
symptoms including ringing, sensitivity to sound, distortion and aural
fullness.

Link: http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10906327-innocent-kiss-of-deaf-can-cause-permanent-hearing-loss

HearingLikeMe is a new site on the web that aims to build a community
around those touched by hearing loss. This includes deaf and hard of
hearing individuals, professionals, and parents of deaf and hard of
hearing children. It’s a great way to use technology to bridge connections.

Link: http://triblocal.com/bolingbrook/community/stories/2012/04/hearinglikeme-a-new-hearing-loss-site/