Jane Madell

Jane Madell, PhD, has a consulting practice in pediatric audiology. She is an audiologist, speech-language pathologist, and LSLS auditory verbal therapist, with a BA from Emerson College and an MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin. Her 45+ years experience ranges from Deaf Nursery programs to positions at the League for the Hard of Hearing (Director), Long Island College Hospital, Downstate Medical Center, Beth Israel Medical Center/New York Eye and Ear Infirmary as director of the Hearing and Learning Center and Cochlear Implant Center. Jane has taught at the University of Tennessee, Columbia University, Downstate Medical School, and Albert Einstein Medical School, published 7 books, and written numerous books chapters and journal articles, and is a well known international lecturer.

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Please, Let’s Use Pass Mics

I had the good fortune to spend last week doing workshops in different cities in Norway for Phonak. I got to meet lots of interesting people and, as always, I learned as well as taught. One of the exciting things was that in Norway, technology is a given. Both children and adults are allowed whatever technology they need, paid

Listening and Literacy

Why is it important for kids with hearing loss to learn to use audition? One of the things we know is that phonics are a basis of literacy. Children learn to read by making sound-symbol associations and then sounding out words. Children learn that the sound /b/ is in the sound at the beginning of the word ball. If they

Why Do Some Kids With Hearing Loss Do Poorly?

Why do some kids with hearing loss do poorly? Well, there are likely as many reasons as there are kids who do poorly. And there are likely as many solutions. What is required for success? For children with hearing loss to be successful they need to have language and literacy at age level. What does it take to get

Is This Child Hearing Well Enough?

Why do we put technology on kids with hearing loss? One reason and only one reason: to be sure they are hearing well enough to learn speech and language. There is an enormous amount of data demonstrating that the amount of auditory exposure a child receives will determine how much language they develop. Parents can talk talk talk, but if

The Marion Downs Award

This week on Thursday April 6, I am going to be awarded the Marion Downs award for Excellence in Pediatric Audiology. It is always an honor to be recognized by your peers. This is an extraordinary honor, and for me a very special one because it recognizes Marion Downs and her work and focuses on Pediatric Audiology. In some ways

Younger Is Better

Time is everything. There is extraordinary data which shows that the younger a child is the more cortical real estate they have. In other words, the work we do early has a critical effect of what happens to a child. We know experience changes our brains. The video BRAIN POWER:From Neurons to Networks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-edwiGUU helps describe What happens to the

Auditory Deprivation and Hearing Loss

There was an interesting article in the January 2017 issue of Hearing Review in which Doug Beck interviews Anu Sharma about her work on auditory deprivation. Anu has done extraordinary work on this topic. We have know for a long time, from the work of Anu Sharma and others that significant hearing loss causes changes in brain activity, the auditory

Hear’s to Fashion!

Today’s blog is written by Stacey Lim, AuD. PhD, CCC-A. Stacey is an assistant professor of audiology at Central Michigan University. Her areas of specialty are pediatric and educational audiology, cochlear implants, and aural rehabilitation. Stacey is co-curator of a museum exhibition, (dis)ABLED BEAUTY: the evolution of beauty, disability, and ability, which focuses on creatively and artistically designed apparel, assistive

Auditory Skills Needed for Classroom

For children with hearing loss to succeed in classroom they need a variety of skills. And learning those skills needs to start when hearing loss is identified – hopefully within the first few weeks. So lets talk about what we think needs to be learned. Detection and Discrimination In order for children to succeed in the classroom they need

What Do School Personnel Need to Know About Hearing?

What do Children Need to Hear in the Classroom? The majority of what children learn, they learn using audition. We learn by overhearing conversation around us. Children need to hear the teacher, but they also have to hear other children’s comments and questions. They need to be able to hear classroom discussion in order to participate. They need to hear