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.

Girl Scout Discrimination Lawsuit

The National Association for the Deaf (NAD) has reported on a serious case of discrimination. Megan Runnion, a 12-year-old girl who is deaf, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana for refusing to provide her with a sign language interpreter. The lawsuit was brought under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and was

Evidence for the Effectiveness of Auditory-Verbal Therapy

This week’s post is written by my good friend and colleague Dimity Dornan. Dr. Dornan is the Executive Director and Founder of Hear and Say, an auditory verbal center in Brisbane, Australia. Her degrees and certifications are as follows: AO, Associate Professor UQ, PhD UQ, HonDUniv USQ, BSpThy, FSPAA, CpSp, LSLS Cert AVT Auditory-Verbal Therapy has been shown to

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Hearing Loss in Children Is a Neurological Emergency

The Facts About Pediatric Hearing Loss Hearing loss is the most common disability of children, worldwide. Every year, 670,000 children are born with hearing loss. Hearing loss cannot be viewed in isolation. Hearing loss causes problems for auditory brain development. When a child with hearing loss is born, she has already had 20 weeks of auditory deprivation. Normal-hearing babies When

Helping Kids Connect

We all know that technology is terrific. It really is. Hearing aids, cochlear implants and BAHA’s provide great access to speech and other auditory stimuli. BUT, we also know that there are a lot of situations in which a child with hearing loss cannot hear well. Hearing aids, cochlear implants and BAHA’s work well when the talker and listener are

Can Kids Benefit From Hearing Loops?

People with hearing loss have trouble hearing when they are at a distance from the person speaking, when it is noisy, and in public places. For children, this can be a particularly serious problem because children need to hear clear loud speech all of their waking hours if they are going to succeed in developing the auditory brain and learn

Readers’ Choices 2014: Parents Need Accurate Information

Dear Readers: During this holiday season, the editors at Hearing Health & Technology Matters (HHTM) are taking some time off. However, we are not leaving you without anything to read on our blog this week. Instead, we are publishing a special holiday edition filled with what we call our Readers’ Choices. HHTM has had more than half a million page

Assessing School Services

How do parents know if their children with hearing loss are receiving enough assistance? I frequently hear from parents who are concerned about how their children are performing. The parents report that they have done what has been recommended but their children do not seem to be doing as well as they think they are capable of doing. NEWS

The Value of Musical Training

Nina Kraus and Samira Anderson have demonstrated the value of music for improving auditory skills. Their research has indicated that music training enhances the neural coding of speech. They suggest that community-based music programs can improve auditory learning and facilitate sound to meaning resulting in improved academic performance and auditory based communication skills. Student studies in Los Angeles Students

Meet the Latest Superhero – a Girl with Cochlear Implants

Everyone needs a superhero – someone you makes you believe that you can be who you want to be. Until recently, most superheroes were male. I remember when Wonder Woman came out. Every girl I knew felt stronger. On Halloween, lots of girls dressed as Wonder Woman. While this was a big step forward for girls, there were still no

Communication Outcomes: Auditory Verbal, Auditory Oral, Bilingual-Bicultural

Choosing the most appropriate methodology is an enormous ongoing issue for families when their child is identified with hearing loss. Professionals all have ideas about what is right and what would be right for the children they see. Unfortunately, professionals have different points of view. What are parents to do? Look at the data! When data is available it