Basketball player aims to bridge gap between hearing and deaf worlds

Former University of New Orleans lockdown defender and business management graduate Kentrell Martin wrote books (with accompanying DVDs) about Shelly, an “energetic, inquisitive, creative little African-American girl that is a child of a deaf adult,” he said. “Her first language is American Sign Language because her father is deaf. Shelly’s goal is to teach the world and those around her American Sign Language (ASL) so they can communicate with the deaf.”

Read more about the books at the link below.

Link: http://tbo.com/brandon/basketball-player-aims-to-bridge-gap-between-hearing-and-deaf-worlds-20150225/?page=1

Communicate Constantly to Your Babies

Parents of tiny babies: When you’re home with the kid, keep a one-sided conversation going about anything and everything while you’re folding laundry, making dinner, or doing whatever else around the house. A steady stream of idle chatter from mom or dad’s mouth improves the child’s cognitive development, even more so than reading to them does, according to the results of a study recently published in the journal Language Teaching and Therapy.

Link: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/01/importance-of-chattering-away-to-babies.html#tmhmdj:iS3

Teen Girl Hears Father’s Voice For First Time After Receiving Brainstem Implant

Maggie Gleason, 14, was born without cochleas, the snail-shaped organs located in the inner ear that works to translate sound into nerve impulses to be sent to the brain. Without them, Gleason was profoundly deaf.

Though she wasn’t a candidate for cochlear implants — a small device that helps provide a sense of sound — she was a candidate for an auditory brainstem implant.

Link: http://www.medicaldaily.com/pulse/teen-girl-hears-fathers-voice-first-time-after-receiving-brainstem-implant-321298

Reaching deaf babies with implants, iPads and therapy

BabyTalk is an innovative program part of a joint partnership between Stanford University and the Weingarten Children’s Center, a Redwood City, Calif., school for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Funded by a $260,000 three-year grant, the program can serve up to 30 children at a time. It’s a test case for how telemedicine can make patient’s lives easier, save money, and bring specialized medical care to underserved and remote communities.

Read more at the link below.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/09/technology/ipads-deaf-kids-therapy/index.html