Hearing and Kids

Featured image for “School is starting – we hope (I think)”
Sep. 14, 2021

School is starting – we hope (I think)

Jane Madell
School is starting again and everyone needs to remember what it is like for a child with a hearing loss to be in school now. We need to be sure that everyone is protected, including our kids. Everyone needs to wear masks. This is just not negotiable. Covid is an awful disease and now, with the Delta variant, children are
Featured image for “The LMH Test For Monitoring Listening – Jane Madell and Joan Hewitt”
Aug. 03, 2021

The LMH Test For Monitoring Listening – Jane Madell and Joan Hewitt

Jane Madell
Today’s blog discusses a new test for monitoring listening developed by Jane Madell and Joan Hewitt We know that it is essential that children with hearing loss hear very well with their technology if they are going to be able to use listening to learn language and develop good literacy skills. That is the reason Dan Ling developed the 5
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Jul. 20, 2021

What is Pediatric Audiology?

Jane Madell
As I travel around (mostly by zoom of late) talking with different groups, I get so many questions about pediatric audiology from families of children with hearing loss, speech language pathologists, teachers of the deaf, and listening and spoken language specialists. I feel like I need to talk about this.   Pediatric audiology is not the same as adult audiology
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Jun. 29, 2021

New kids books with animal characters with hearing loss

Jane Madell
Tanya Saunders has written a series of books in which animal characters have a cochlear implant. The books also deal with feelings. Two books are about Ling Ling Bird who has Magic Ears. In the book Ling Ling Bird Hears with his Magic Ears the book goes through lots of animal and environmental sounds around them. It is for very
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Jun. 15, 2021

Why Listening Practice is Important

Jane Madell
When children get technology for the first time, or when they move from one piece of technology to another (changing hearing aids or moving from a hearing aid to a cochlear implant), families often assume that since the new sound is better, they will just adapt. “Now they are hearing so they will just learn by listening”. Research has shown
Featured image for “Building skills for children with unilateral hearing loss and cochlear implants”
Jun. 01, 2021

Building skills for children with unilateral hearing loss and cochlear implants

Jane Madell
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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May. 11, 2021

Building Babies Brains

Jane Madell
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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Apr. 07, 2021

Helping Families Accept and Use Hearing Technology

Jane Madell
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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Apr. 07, 2021

Concerns about The Sound of Metal

Jane Madell
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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Mar. 16, 2021

The Hearing Aid Effect

Jane Madell
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