The UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders
recently received more than $200,000 from the United Way of
Metropolitan Dallas to fund two priority programs for 2011-12. The two
funded programs will provide pediatric hearing aid services and
speech and language treatment for children with cochlear implants.The
grants are used to offset discounted service costs for children with
limited resources.

Link: http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2011/6/20-11401_United-Way-Grants-Support-Callier-Programs-for-Kid_article.html

Check out this page which features innovative programs and quality tools for improving cultural and linguistic competence as well as reducing health care disparities for vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic minorities. 

Link: http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/CulturalCompetence.aspx

Dr. Jacque Rogers Scholl, the founder of the Children’s Hearing Aid
Project or CHAP, was pleased to announce its 1st annual fundraising event
called “Tulsa Hears a Who” raised more than $25,000 for the program.
Dr. Scholl founded CHAP to come up with a way to provide hearing
aids for children. She organized a fundraiser called “Tulsa Hears a Who,” based
on the popular Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who. More than 250 people attended the first annual event. Plans are also underway for the next annual fundraiser in January 2012.

Link: http://speech-language-pathology-audiology.advanceweb.com/News/Industry-Buzz/First-Annual-Tulsa-Hears-a-Who-Raises-Over-25000.aspx

With the help of a star-studded line-up of celebrities including Marlee Matlin, Donny & Marie Osmond, and others from daytime, primetime and reality television, the Starkey Hearing Foundation,
which is dedicated to building better lives for the hearing impaired, announced that it
will deliver the gift of hearing to more than 100 under-served,
hearing-impaired children and adults from the Las Vegas area.The event is to take place on June 18, 2011 at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Link: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/6461-marlee-matlin-and-celebrity-friends-to-deliver-hearing-aids-to-children#ixzz1PMgtcprv

A new app enables the hearing impaired to conduct real-time
two-way conversations in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian, German,
and Mandarin Chinese without the need for sign language or an in-person
translator.

Link: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/speechtrans-offers-mobile-translation-app-for-hearing-impaired-122863489.html

New research has shown that an analysis of a newborn’s saliva is effective in screening for Cytomegalovirus (CMV), which is a leading cause of hearing loss in children and the most common infection passed from a mother to an unborn child.  A sample of nearly 35,000 infants from seven different hospitals in the
U.S. was used for analysis in this project.  Saliva samples were taken
from infants who were typically one day old.  Researchers were able to correctly identify every baby born with the infection when liquid samples were used and 97.4% of babies when samples were dried.  CMV affects 20,000 to 30,000 infants each year who have contracted the virus while in utero.  10-15 percent of infected infants are at risk of developing hearing loss. 

Link: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1006561

Read this month’s edition of AAP’s EHDI E-mail Express!  This is a monthly electronic newsletter sent out for the purpose of providing resources and current clinical and other information to those interested in current issues facing childhood hearing detection and intervention.  Check out the helpful insights from this month’s edition!

Link: http://www.infanthearing.org/ncham_news/docs/EHDI_Email_Express_May2011.pdf

Massachusetts school for those with hearing loss evolves.

Ongoing changes at Clarke Schools for Hearing & Speech in Massachusetts –founded in 1867 — reflect the evolution of education for those who cannot hear.  The use of cochlear implants and earlier identification of hearing difficulties have led to lower enrollment and downsizing of the school’s campus and many teachers now primarily working with students in traditional schools.  “We thought if we could give our kids the opportunity to connect freely with the 99.98 percent of the population that uses spoken language, then it was something we wanted to do,” school President William J. Corwin said.

Link: http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1306653311315130.xml&coll=1

The June edition of the ECHO Initiative’s Probes and Tips newsletter is now available and features a new sing-along video called “Listen Up!”

Link: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs073/1102782899287/archive/1105505916259.html

What is the best approach for teaching students who cannot hear?

The appointment of three new board members at the Indiana School for the Deaf has ignited a debate over the best methods for educating students who cannot hear or who have hearing impairments.  The board members, appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels, favor an approach in which students are taught to speak, listen, and read lips.  However, many parents at the school favor a focus on American Sign Language, which has been used as the primary method of instruction at the school for decades.  Is there a solution to these problems?

Link: http://www.indystar.com/article/20110518/NEWS04/105180321/For-some-Deaf-School-board-choices-bad-sign