Hearing and Kids

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Jan. 11, 2022

It’s a New Year for Listening

Jane Madell
It’s a new year. What do we have to do during this year to help children with hearing loss succeed? Listening is the basis of success We have to be certain that the children are hearing what they need to hear. For children to succeed they need to hear everything that is happening in school and out of school. Remember
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Dec. 14, 2021

The More You Hear, The Better

Jane Madell
There have been several studies recently which remind us how important it is that children with hearing loss use their technology every waking hour. The Boys Town group has done many wonderful studies over the years. Several years ago they reported that children who wore hearing aids 10 or more hours/day performed significantly better than kids who did not wear
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Oct. 26, 2021

How can we improve outcomes for babies with hearing loss?

Jane Madell
All the research has shown that if babies wear technology 10 or more hours/day they will have good access to language and brain development. But all of us who work with families who have a difficult time keeping technology on children. Why is it that some families have a difficult time getting children to accept technology? What can we do
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Oct. 05, 2021

More about Pediatric Audiology

Jane Madell
When I was supervising new audiologists I always recommend a very old book about diagnosis. It was a book by Helmer Myklebust and was entitled AUDITORY DISORDERS IN CHILDREN: a manual for differential diagnosis. It was published in 1954. Myklebust was  a professor of audiology in the School of Medicine at Northwestern University and Director of the Children’s Hearing and
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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
Featured image for “New kids books with animal characters with hearing loss”
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