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 “Unilateral Hearing Loss”

Unilateral Hearing Loss

Until the last 15 or 20 years there has been a significant change in the way unilateral hearing loss has been viewed. Until recently audiologists and ENT’s assumed that a unilateral hearing loss (UHL) did not cause any language or learning problems. We now know that unilateral hearing loss causes significant problems. Cheryl Deconde Johnson has demonstrated the socio-emotional aspects

Featured image for “Pediatric Audiology Requires a Degree of Competence”

Pediatric Audiology Requires a Degree of Competence

I have had three upsetting experiences in the last few weeks about pediatric audiology. All involved incompetence. I will confess right from the start that I am not tolerant of incompetence. If you ask people who have worked with me they will confirm this. When it comes to a child’s future, incompetence seems unacceptable. Pediatric Audiology Requires Competence

Featured image for “Bilingual Learning”

Bilingual Learning

When I started in this field (in the age of the Dinosaur) the viewpoint was that we should tell bilingual parents that they needed to talk to their children with hearing loss in English because they would be going to schools which used English. In retrospect I cannot imagine what we were thinking. Parents were being asked to speak to

Featured image for “Let’s Read”

Let’s Read

I was cleaning up my enormous pile of journals this week found some wonderful articles that have useful information. One was an article Reading Aloud At Home by Ellie White and Jenna Voss published in the Volta Review in September of 2017. A lot of the information in this blog comes from that article. We have heard lots and lots

Featured image for “Testing speech perception at a soft level”

Testing speech perception at a soft level

I have been feeling for awhile that I am not hearing well. I went for an evaluation and, I was right. Speech perception testing confirmed what I suspected. While I did fine at normal conversation, my speech perception for soft speech was poor at 56%. Hmmm. I tried new hearing aids and when I got retested with the new aids

Featured image for “Home technology vs school technology”

Home technology vs school technology

In the last few months I had questions from three different people asking what I thought about children changing their hearing aids when they get to school – listening with different equipment at home and at school. This can be a critical issue. Why would we consider having children change technology when they get to school? It is critical

Featured image for “Some New Books to Think About”

Some New Books to Think About

Violet’s Story Violet’s story is published by Auditory Verbal UK (www.avuk.org) and written by Frances Clark who is a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist.. It is the story about a little girl is born with normal hearing but looses hearing at age 4. She is confused and doesn’t understand what is happening to her. Her parents are concerned because

Featured image for “Using Test Results to Plan Management”

Using Test Results to Plan Management

Is the child hearing normal conversation? If a child has good speech perception at normal conversational levels (45-50 dBHL) than we expect the child will hear well when 3-6 feet from the person who is speaking and when it is quiet. If she cannot hear well when close to the talker she will have problems learning. Children who cannot

Featured image for “Is My Child Hearing Well Enough With Technology?”

Is My Child Hearing Well Enough With Technology?

I frequently get questions from families asking about how to know if their child is hearing well enough with technology. Sometimes it is a concern that the child does not seem to be developing language quickly enough. Sometimes it is because the child does not turn to sound. Sometimes other concerns. My first questions is ALWAYS “What does the child

Featured image for “It’s A New World”

It’s A New World

I have been fortunate to have worked in this field long enough to have seen amazing changes. When I started more than 50 years ago, children where not identified until their parents observed that they were not developing speech and language. Usually at about 18 months. They were fit with hearing aids which provided limited benefit because they had limited