Newborn hearing screening is effective, but still presents with flaws

A recent study, indicated that newborn hearing screenings have proven to be highly effective at identifying children with hearing loss, but children with slight or mild hearing loss may pass the screening at birth. Children who have late onset hearing loss may also pass the newborn hearing screening initially. Newborn hearing screenings can provide a false sense of security, but it's important to note how effective this program has been since it was implemented. A key recommendation for parents is to have an audiological evaluation for any concerns regarding speech and language delays. Here is the link for a more in-depth overview of the study: http://www.audiology.org/news/Pages/20130812.aspx

How Do We Know What a Kid With Hearing Loss Needs In School?

Everyone who works with children with hearing loss knows that, even with all  the great technology that  is available  today, kids still need help.  Because the technology is so good, school staff members sometimes think that kids do not need any  help. I have had school staff tell me that now that a  child has a cochlear implant he is no  longer disabled. Well, he  is  certainly much better than he  was before he received an implant, but it  is really important to understand that he is still not normal hearing.

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Hearing in the classroom

Even if a child is hearing well, a child with hearing loss is listening through a damaged auditory system. We know that a child with hearing loss needs four times the repetition to learn. So we know that in a classroom situation, a child with  hearing  loss  will need to hear everything multiple times to get  the message. What does this tell us about how a child  is  learning? It tells us that we need to be sure a child has the  information he needs to follow  classroom discussion. To me this means that a  child needs preview and review by a person who  has academic skills.  Usually this  is  a teacher of children with  hearing loss. It may be a speech-language pathologist who provides the service, and this can work  well for young children, but may not be optimal for older children where academic material is more difficult. The SLP will also be responsible  for teaching all  speech and language skills so, if the SLP is responsible  for preview and review, more time needs to be allotted to service provision.

Looking at test results

When reviewing evaluations it is important to look at all subtests. People frequently look at the total score and, if a child seems to be doing well, they make a determination that no services are needed. However, it is very valuable to look at all subtests and see areas in which a child is either below average or scores more poorly than in other areas. For example, if a child is within normal limits on  the overall test but is performing poorly on auditory memory tests, it indicates that she will need therapy to address auditory memory skills even if her overall score is good.

Comparing test results with other kids in the class

It is important to compare kids with other kids in the same school, not  just with kids in the standardized test pool. This is especially important for child in high achieving school districts. Kids need to compete with the kids around them. So we need  to pay attention to how kids are performing and  work  hard to keep them there. As long as we pay good attention we will succeed in helping kids be the best they can be.

Adapted from a post by Jane Madell at HHTM (August 7, 2012)

http://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearingandkids/2012/how-do-we-know-what-a-kid-with-hearing-loss-needs-in-school/

Hearing loss in children is often associated with balance disorders

Due to the anatomical link between the hearing and balance system, it may not be a surprise that hearing loss and balance dysfunction are often coexisting conditions. Children who have been diagnosed with hearing loss are at higher risk for balance disorders, this is often an overlooked area in the evaluation and treatment of hearing loss. Audiologists and physical therapists can provide pediatric balance evaluations to determine if a balance disorder is concurrently present with the diagnosis of hearing loss.


Source: Google images

More awareness is being brought to this area and in the future balance screenings may be more widely used as a tool to ensure proper development of our all important balance system. For more in-depth information click the link below to access an overview of pediatric balance disorders from the Vestibular Disorders Association: https://vestibular.org/pediatric-vestibular-disorders.

Head of Starkey Hearing Foundation will match donations up to $100,000

Today, Bill Austin announced that he will match donations up to $100,000.

The Starkey Hearing Foundation uses hearing as a vehicle to reflect caring and help people reach their full potential. More than 360 million people worldwide have a disabling hearing loss, yet many do not have access to the hearing care that can help them. They have helped develop sustainable systems of hearing care globally, fit and given more than 100,000 hearing aids to people in need each year, and have worked in over 100 countries. 


Please pass along the message and consider donating today:

https://action.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/

Worst Noises in the World

The worst noises in the world: Why we recoil at unpleasant sounds

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience and funded by the Wellcome Trust, Newcastle University scientists reveal the interaction between the region of the brain that processes sound, the auditory cortex, and the amygdala, which is active in the processing of negative emotions when we hear unpleasant sounds.

Brain imaging has shown that when we hear an unpleasant noise the amygdala modulates the response of the auditory cortex heightening activity and provoking our negative reaction.

"It appears there is something very primitive kicking in," says Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, the paper's author from Newcastle University. "It's a possible distress signal from the amygdala to the auditory cortex."

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL and Newcastle University used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the brains of 13 volunteers responded to a range of sounds. Listening to the noises inside the scanner they rated them from the most unpleasant - the sound of knife on a bottle – to pleasing - bubbling water. Researchers were then able to study the brain response to each type of sound.

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Professor Tim Griffiths from Newcastle University, who led the study, says: "This work sheds new light on the interaction of the amygdala and the auditory cortex. This might be a new inroad into emotional disorders and disorders like tinnitus and migraine in which there seems to be heightened perception of the unpleasant aspects of sounds."

MOST UNPLEASANT SOUNDS

Rating 74 sounds, people found the most unpleasant noises to be:

1. Knife on a bottle

2. Fork on a glass

3. Chalk on a blackboard

4. Ruler on a bottle

5. Nails on a blackboard

6. Female scream

7. Anglegrinder

8. Brakes on a cycle squealing

9. Baby crying

10. Electric drill

LEAST UNPLEASANT SOUNDS

1. Applause

2. Baby laughing

3. Thunder

4. Water flowing

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/nu-twn101212.php

Students with hearing loss face educational barriers

American deaf and hard of hearing K-12 students face major barriers and challenges while trying to get an education, says a new report by the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University. 

The five barriers identified were: 

1.A lack of knowledge about hearing loss among professionals, caregivers and the public

2.A lack of collaboration between these groups

3.Unqualified professionals and service providers

4.A lack of accommodation in the school system

5.Not enough focus on the child's self-development

read more here:

http://audiology.advanceweb.com/News/News-Watch/K-12-Students-with-Hearing-Loss-Face-Educational-Barriers.aspx

Major psychiatric disorders share common genetic risk factors

For the first time, scientists have discovered that five major psychiatric disorders—autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia—share several common genetic risk factors.  In particular, variations in two genes involved in the balance of calcium in brain cells are implicated in several of these disorders and could be a target for new treatments. The findings from the largest ever genetic study of psychiatric illness, published Online First in The Lancet, may help to one day reclassify these disorders on the basis of causes rather than descriptive syndromes.
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According to Smoller, “Significant progress has been made in understanding the genetic risk factors underlying psychiatric disorders. Our results provide new evidence that may inform a move beyond descriptive syndromes in psychiatry and towards classification based on underlying causes. These findings are particularly relevant in view of the imminent revision of classifications in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).”*

Writing in a linked Comment, Alessandro Serretti and Chiara Fabbri from the University of Bologna in Italy say, “the present study might contribute to future nosographic [classification] systems, which could be based not only on statistically determined clinical categories, but also on biological pathogenic factors that are pivotal to the identification of suitable treatments.”

They add, “genetics…can contribute to prediction and prevention of psychiatric diseases, along with the identification of molecular targets for new generations of psychotropic drugs.”

Read full story here:

http://www.audiologyonline.com/releases/lancet-largest-study-its-kind-11763