Published on August 5, 2007 in Deaf World As Eye See It blog.
This is an unique blog posting that I want to share with you, especially for audiologists who are working with D/deaf children. This is an e-mail correspondence between Deaf vlogger and hearing audiologist. We both agreed that we share our correspondence with you.
Let me explain how it had happened, it all began when one audiologist contacted me through e-mail regarding “The Greatest Irony”.
This audiologist (name not revealed as per request) explained in this e-mail about how important this videoclip should be shared with audiologists.
I asked, “Why?”
This audiologist responded, “Because this video provides an unique perspective from the Deaf person that many audiologists did not get from their professional training.”
Then, I asked several difficult questions, and with my delight, these questions were answered!
Thank you so much, my fellow audiologist, for your time and contribution.
AUDIOLOGIST:
Amy, you raised some excellent questions in your last email. I will copy parts of your message and try to share my thoughts. I am honored that you care what I think, and again, I am sorry for taking so long to respond.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
When babies are diagnosed with hearing loss, are they fitted with hearing aids right-away or will the family and surgeon plan to schedule the cochlear implant surgery 6 months later?
AUDIOLOGIST:
It varies among clinics in the U.S. With newborn hearing screening, the goal is to identify the hearing loss by 1 month of age, and intervene (with hearing aids, parent support, or ASL when appropriate) by 3 months of age. Since the FDA guidelines say a CI should be implanted at age 1 year earliest, that leaves plenty of time to let the early-identified baby try hearing aids and see if there is benefit or not. It used to be that most clinics would require the baby to try using hearing aids before scheduling surgery. I think these days there is more variability among clinics and regions.
I think the clinics definitely have a bias toward recommending CIs if the child is profoundly or even severe-to-profoundly deaf. They usually don’t provide full information about choices in language, they don’t link families to Deaf adults, and ... I think they don’t even realize their bias.
One more thing: the FDA guidelines are only guidelines, not laws. There are some clinics that implant earlier than a year.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
What happens between the time the hearing loss is identified and the time the CI is implanted?
No auditory stimulation - and do you think exposing *some* signs will help or impede the child’s auditory learning?
AUDIOLOGIST:
My own opinion is: all deaf and significantly hearing impaired babies - and their families- should have exposure and access to ASL-based signs (even if it’s sign supported speech used in a conceptually accurate manner). I absolutely believe we should be making the most of their strength: vision.
Unfortunately, this is not a popular view in the clinics.
As far as the auditory component, yes, that should be addressed (if the parents’ goal is to maximize the use of any residual hearing and help prepare the brain for interpreting whatever sound signals it will receive). Research shows that early intervention is critical. Even before the baby gets the CI, there is a lot the parents can do to facilitate communication with the baby by the way they use their tone of voice, and the duration, pitch, loudness, musicality of the voice.
It’s not just words and speech sounds… But again, I agree completely that parents of deaf babies need support to understand and adapt to the visual requirements of the situation.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
I am still struggling to understand why AVT shuns sign language completely, and what kind of harm it will be if visual cues/signs are introduced during the AVT sessions?
AUDIOLOGIST:
Did you know that AVT is now under AGBell? AVT is not an independent organization of its own anymore.
Anyway, the reason AVT shuns ALL visual communication of all kinds (including ASL, Cued Speech, and even speechreading/lipreading): they believe that using the visual path recruits brain cells that would otherwise be used for processing auditory information.
I’ve heard it compared to putting an “eyepatch over the strong eye [vision] in order to strengthen the weak eye [hearing]”.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
The infant from age zero to 6 months or later - their brains are wired for visual input - and why take the best advantage of this?
AUDIOLOGIST:
I completely agree with you. The greatest irony indeed.
We need to make connections with professionals, especially audiologists, speech language pathologists, teachers, and ENTs to help them to see the irony of the situation. I did with one audiologist, and I believe you can too.
The Greatest Irony - Audiologist’s Response
Published on August 5, 2007 in Deaf World As Eye See It blog.
This is an unique blog posting that I want to share with you, especially for audiologists who are working with D/deaf children. This is an e-mail correspondence between Deaf vlogger and hearing audiologist. We both agreed that we share our correspondence with you.
Let me explain how it had happened, it all began when one audiologist contacted me through e-mail regarding “The Greatest Irony”.
This audiologist (name not revealed as per request) explained in this e-mail about how important this videoclip should be shared with audiologists.
I asked, “Why?”
This audiologist responded, “Because this video provides an unique perspective from the Deaf person that many audiologists did not get from their professional training.”
Then, I asked several difficult questions, and with my delight, these questions were answered!
Thank you so much, my fellow audiologist, for your time and contribution.
AUDIOLOGIST:
Amy, you raised some excellent questions in your last email. I will copy parts of your message and try to share my thoughts. I am honored that you care what I think, and again, I am sorry for taking so long to respond.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
When babies are diagnosed with hearing loss, are they fitted with hearing aids right-away or will the family and surgeon plan to schedule the cochlear implant surgery 6 months later?
AUDIOLOGIST:
It varies among clinics in the U.S. With newborn hearing screening, the goal is to identify the hearing loss by 1 month of age, and intervene (with hearing aids, parent support, or ASL when appropriate) by 3 months of age. Since the FDA guidelines say a CI should be implanted at age 1 year earliest, that leaves plenty of time to let the early-identified baby try hearing aids and see if there is benefit or not. It used to be that most clinics would require the baby to try using hearing aids before scheduling surgery. I think these days there is more variability among clinics and regions.
I think the clinics definitely have a bias toward recommending CIs if the child is profoundly or even severe-to-profoundly deaf. They usually don’t provide full information about choices in language, they don’t link families to Deaf adults, and ... I think they don’t even realize their bias.
One more thing: the FDA guidelines are only guidelines, not laws. There are some clinics that implant earlier than a year.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
What happens between the time the hearing loss is identified and the time the CI is implanted?
No auditory stimulation - and do you think exposing *some* signs will help or impede the child’s auditory learning?
AUDIOLOGIST:
My own opinion is: all deaf and significantly hearing impaired babies - and their families- should have exposure and access to ASL-based signs (even if it’s sign supported speech used in a conceptually accurate manner). I absolutely believe we should be making the most of their strength: vision.
Unfortunately, this is not a popular view in the clinics.
As far as the auditory component, yes, that should be addressed (if the parents’ goal is to maximize the use of any residual hearing and help prepare the brain for interpreting whatever sound signals it will receive). Research shows that early intervention is critical. Even before the baby gets the CI, there is a lot the parents can do to facilitate communication with the baby by the way they use their tone of voice, and the duration, pitch, loudness, musicality of the voice.
It’s not just words and speech sounds… But again, I agree completely that parents of deaf babies need support to understand and adapt to the visual requirements of the situation.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
I am still struggling to understand why AVT shuns sign language completely, and what kind of harm it will be if visual cues/signs are introduced during the AVT sessions?
AUDIOLOGIST:
Did you know that AVT is now under AGBell? AVT is not an independent organization of its own anymore.
Anyway, the reason AVT shuns ALL visual communication of all kinds (including ASL, Cued Speech, and even speechreading/lipreading): they believe that using the visual path recruits brain cells that would otherwise be used for processing auditory information.
I’ve heard it compared to putting an “eyepatch over the strong eye [vision] in order to strengthen the weak eye [hearing]”.
AMY COHEN EFRON:
The infant from age zero to 6 months or later - their brains are wired for visual input - and why take the best advantage of this?
AUDIOLOGIST:
I completely agree with you. The greatest irony indeed.
We need to make connections with professionals, especially audiologists, speech language pathologists, teachers, and ENTs to help them to see the irony of the situation. I did with one audiologist, and I believe you can too.