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.

Featured image for “Building skills for children with unilateral hearing loss and cochlear implants”

Building skills for children with unilateral hearing loss and cochlear implants

I have received a lot of questions about managing children with unilateral hearing loss, who wear a cochlear implant on the ear with hearing loss. What do we need to do to build skills the cochlear implant ear? Two ears have significant benefit in the ability to localize sound and in hearing in noise. This is a critical so we

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Building Babies Brains

It is good for us all to be reminded periodically about what is involved in building baby’s brains. We know now that babies learn even earlier than we thought possible. Hearing babies are listening to their mothers for at least the last 20 weeks of pregnancy. They recognize their mother’s voices. Babies cry in the languages they hear. The melody

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Helping Families Accept and Use Hearing Technology

In the olden days, when I started to work in this field, we used to think that parents where having trouble using hearing aids with their children because they were not comfortable with technology. That might have been true 50 years ago, but it is not true today. They all have smart phones, smart TVs etc. So now, when parents

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Concerns about The Sound of Metal

I’ve tried to keep my mouth shut, but I give up. The Sound of Metal is getting lots of press, but I am concerned about the message it is giving about cochlear implants. Yes, when CI’s get turned on they may not sound like speech but, with practice, it gets better and most adults who lost hearing feel that they

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The Hearing Aid Effect

There has been a lot of research about the Hearing Aid Effect with adults. What does that mean? It means how do people with a hearing aid think others react to them because they have a hearing aid. How does it make them feel? Does it make them feel less competent? Whether or not people have negative opinions of people

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Covid again!!!

Anyone out there sick of hearing about Covid? I certainly am. I am one of the lucky ones who has had both vaccine shots. It is a great relief. But what is happening to people with hearing loss? Adult friends who have hearing loss talk about how difficult it is for them to manage in many situations. Masks distort the

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Helping Kids Explain Hearing Loss

When children are little, parents explain about their child’s hearing loss. When someone asks “What are those things in his ears?”, parents say something like “those are his hearing aids, they help him hear better.” If children ask more questions, we might add something like “Some people wear eyeglasses to help them see better and some people wear hearing aids

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Expanding Communication Circles

As part of helping kids understand the need for good communication it is important to talk about the people they need to communicate with. Especially as kids get older, they need to realize that the world is bigger than it was when they were little. They need to know that they will need to be able to communicate with a

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Masks, School, and Hearing Loss

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. Our Readers’ Choices featured this week are the posts

Featured image for “Celebrating Holidays with Children with Hearing Loss”

Celebrating Holidays with Children with Hearing Loss

Holidays can be stressful times for all of us. There are lots of things happening and much more to do than during other times. This year holidays have the added problem of Covid and, for many families it is will be a more lonely time. Some of us are not spending time with families that we normal would see. And