Sign Language Making Big Impact

Zoe Jagla was a frustrated little girl, throwing temper tantrums as she tried and failed to communicate what she wanted. Her parents searched for a sign language teacher for their severe to profoundly deaf two-year-old, but couldn’t find one until Becky Reeder and Beth Chilman came along and dedicated two to three days a week to teach her American Sign Language.

Link: http://thesouthern.com/news/local/sign-language-making-big-impact/article_0f8331d7-90f2-5c33-a68b-41dd4382d6dc.html

Gene therapy to address progressive hearing loss

Using DNA as a drug — commonly called gene therapy — in laboratory mice may protect the inner ear nerve cells of humans suffering from certain types of progressive hearing loss, researchers have discovered. While the research is in its early stages, it has the potential to lead to a cure for some varieties of deafness.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140324111918.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmind_brain%2Fhearing_loss+%28Hearing+Loss+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Preschool Hearing Screenings: A Comparison of Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission and Pure Tone Protocols

From the Journal of Educational Audiology vol. 19, 2013 – Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) are sensitive to both sensorineural and conductive hearing losses and have the potential to be used as an effective screening measure across all populations, including children. DPOAE offer a quick and straightforward hearing screening technique for the pediatric population that is not influenced by subjective testing and is highly reproducible. In this study, the mean test times and pass/fail rates from 198 preschool participants were compared between two DPOAE screening protocols (1-5 kHz and 2-5 kHz) and a pure-tone screening protocol (1, 2 and 4 kHz). Significantly less time was needed to conduct the DPOAE screenings compared to the pure-tone screenings. Results suggested similar pass/fail rates for both DPOAE protocols compared to pure-tone screenings. Without diagnostic audiologic test results, the sensitivity and specificity of the screening protocols could not be determined. Until the true sensitivity and specificity of DPOAE and pure-tone screening protocols can be determined, it is recommended that clinicians consider adding DPOAE to their current screening protocol, or at least having DPOAE available to screen children who cannot or will not participate in pure-tone screenings.

Link: http://www.infanthearing.org/news/news/1043/Preschool-Hearing-Screenings-A-Comparison-of-Distortion-Product-Otoacoustic-Emission-and-Pure-Tone-Protocols