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.

CARING ABOUT COUNSELING – Johnnie Sexton

This issue of the blog is being written by my good friend Johnnie Sexton. Johnnie has worked with children who are deaf and hard of hearing for 33 years. In recent years, he designed the early intervention system for audiology in North Carolina. He has devoted his energy in the past 2 years to redefining counseling for families with children who

GETTING AN INCOMPLETE MESSAGE

A friend shared this puzzler with me recently. You have probably seen things like this before. Try and read it, and while you are doing so, think about how kids with hearing loss have to figure things out receiving an incomplete message. 7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17

IT’S NOT THE SAME OLD DEAFNESS

Hearing loss today is not what it was when I started in this profession 45 years ago. (And, believe me, that’s a good thing!) It is not the same as it was 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago. People with hearing loss have more options now than they did in the past. Technology has improved so dramatically that

IT TAKES A VILLAGE…….

Who makes up the team for managing hearing loss in children? Hearing loss is complicated and the bigger the team the better chance we have of meeting the needs of a child with hearing loss. Some of the team members are obvious. The permanent fixtures of the team are the child, parents, extended family, the audiologist, pediatrician and otolaryngologist. Other

Speech Perception – The Basics

SPEECH PERCEPTION – THE BASICS The real goal of technology is to assure that kids are hearing and understanding speech. First we need to know if the hearing aids are set appropriately (see HOW DO I KNOW IF THE HEARING AIDS ARE WORKING WELL?) Next we need to look at how well the child understands speech. This is a big

HOW DO I KNOW IF THE HEARING AIDS ARE WORKING WELL?

This, of course, is the 64 million dollar question. The answer is “don’t assume.” There is only one way to know if hearing aids are doing well. Test them. Asking an adult with hearing loss if he is hearing okay with hearing aids is not necessarily going to give you the info you want because he may not have realistic

Breaking Bad News

Telling parents that their perfect new baby has a hearing loss is one of the most difficult things I ever have to do as an audiologist. After more years of doing this than I want to admit to, it still makes me sad to break bad news. Understanding our own emotions about this helps us deal with the emotions of