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.

Pioneers Helping Children Learn to Hear

Helen Beebe was one of the pioneers who worked to help children with hearing loss learn to use residual hearing to develop speech and language. Beebe, along with some of the other pioneers, Doreen Pollack, Ciwa Griffiths, and Dan Ling, helped change the way people thought about deafness. They developed the philosophy of auditory-verbal or acoupedics – in other words,

A New Test for Children With Hearing Loss

The University of Western Ontario has developed a new test to help evaluate hearing in children. It is a plurals test and it helps identify how well a child is hearing in the high frequencies. Why are high frequencies important? We need high frequencies to hear plurals, possessives, tense and contractions. If you don’t hear high frequencies you miss

Music Lessons for Kids with Hearing Loss

Thanks to the advanced technology available today, many kids with hearing loss are playing musical instruments. Some will be good and others not – just like kids with typical hearing. I have two kids with typical hearing, both of whom took music lessons as kids. One was really good, and the other wasn’t. It had nothing to do with hearing.

A Superhero with Hearing Aids

Hearing impaired kids need good role models. Unfortunately, they have been difficult to find. In 1977, the first role model appeared when Lou Ferrigno was cast as The Incredible Hulk. Lou was born in Brooklyn and had a severe hearing loss diagnosed at age 3 years. At 13 he started body building and, as they say, the rest is history.

The Itinerant Teacher for Children with Hearing Loss

With the technology available today, almost all children with hearing loss (83.3%) are being educated in mainstream classes. While mainstream education has significant advantages by providing typical language and academic models and expectations, it also means that additional services will be needed to keep the kids on target. The itinerant teacher is the person who has a lot of that

Testing Hearing in Remote Thailand

On a trip to Northern Thailand in July my husband and I were taken on a visit to a school. The tour guide knew that I was a pediatric audiologist and that I was in Thailand to do some lecturing about managing hearing loss in children. The school staff asked me what I was interested in seeing. I said I

Communicating Between Professionals

I just returned from attending the AGBell Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona. This has always been my favorite conference. Probably half the attendees are parents and the other half are professionals, all of whom support listening and spoken language for children and adults with hearing loss. Families and professionals attend meetings together, share information together, and learn together. I love presenting

How Do We Know What a Kid With Hearing Loss Needs In School?

Everyone who works with children with hearing loss knows that, even with all the great technology that is available today, kids still need help. Because the technology is so good, school staff members sometimes think that kids do not need any help. I have had school staff tell me that now that a child has a cochlear implant he is

What Does An Educational Audiologist Do?

Educational audiology is a critical subspecialty in the field of audiology. The role of an educational audiologist is different in different settings but basically, the educational audiologist is responsible for managing audiological issues for children in schools. Large school districts may have a full time educational audiologist, others may have one part time, or one as a consultant who comes

Early Childhood Deafness: Past, Present and Future

This edition of Hearing and Kids, is written by David Luterman. David was my first audiology professor, he gave me my first job as an audiologist when he started the Thayer-Lindsey Nursery for Deaf Children, and he continues to be my mentor. I attribute much of my success in pediatric audiology to David. When I first worked with David, I walked