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.

Kids Need Friends

We all know the advantages of mainstreaming kids with hearing loss and other disabilities. Exposure to typical children and typical academic expectations offers children with hearing loss the opportunity to develop better language, literacy and academic skills. Kids who are mainstreamed are not inherently smarter than kids attending signing programs in schools for the deaf but their parents have made

Protected: Summer Camps for Kids With Hearing Loss

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What Does Your Baby Hear?

The first question I ask a family when I see them – either the first time or when they come in for re-evaluation is “What does your baby or child hear with technology?” If babies are doing well with hearing aids, I expect the parents and the therapist working with the family to be able to tell me what sounds

Using Words Carefully

We are all influenced by words. Some have easy, uncomplicated meanings (book, tree, house) and others carry a lot of emotional baggage (disabled, slow, delayed etc). When talking with families and children we are working with we need to think carefully about how we describe children and test results. We do not want our words to interfere with our message.

Deaf Children in Under-served Countries

I received an email asking for help from a mother of a little 3 year old boy who is deaf who lives in Iraq, near Baghdad. She has known that he had a hearing loss for many months but has not been able to get services for him. Why? Well, she is a Kurd and the roads are not safe

May Is Better Speech and Hearing Month

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month. What does that mean we should be doing? I want to use this opportunity to help kids understand about hearing: why it is important, what do we need to do to protect it, and what do we need to do to make things easier for our friends who do not hear well.

When Kids Have Poor Speech Production

I recently consulted with a family which was concerned about the educational performance of their 9-year-old son with hearing loss. He was demonstrating significant language delays, which were resulting in significant learning problems, including reading delays. Everyone, including the faculty at the boy’s school, assumed that all his problems were due to hearing loss. As a result, they seemed to conclude

Improving Hearing Tests for Little Ones

Many years ago, I had the good fortune to have David Luterman as my mentor. He had been my undergraduate professor at Emerson College and taught me how exciting pediatric audiology could be. I went off to the University of Wisconsin to earn a master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders, and then returned to work as the audiologist in

Supporting an Auditory Verbal Family

Today’s blog is written by Stacey Lim, Au.D., Ph.D., CCC-A. Dr. Lim, a licensed audiologist, is an assistant professor of audiology at Central Michigan University. She was identified with hearing loss at the age of 10 months and was fitted with her first pair of hearing aids a month later. She received a cochlear implant at the age of 18. After

It’s Not the Same Old Deafness

At the recent Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EDHI) meeting there was, as always, a lot of hallway discussion about auditory-verbal therapy vs sign language. Some of the deaf participants said that, in their view, asking deaf kids to use listening was an indication that the parents (and professionals) did not accept the children as deaf. Their view, if I