15th ANNUAL EARLY HEARING DETECTION & INTERVENTION MEETING
March 13-15, 2016 • San Diego, CA
3/13/2016 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Pacific Salon 1
Speech to My Ears. Coaching Parents on Using Wireless Technology with their Very Young Child
Early Intervention Providers who work directly with children and their families in their homes and daycare centers provide ongoing support, education and therapy during visits in uncontrolled noisy environments. Everyday activities can provide challenging listening environments for a parent to communicate with their child (Mulla, 2013). Toddlers in daycare centers can spend 80-90% of their day trying to hear speech in noise levels averaging 75dB (Crukley, et al., 2011). For young listeners, who are developing speech and language skills, it is important to clearly hear and understand the voice of the speaker. A typical hearing child accumulates 45 million words by age 4 (Hart, B. and Risely, T.R., 2003). In contrast, children with hearing loss are at risk for developing language on par with their typical hearing peers because their access to words in these challenging listening environments is sub-par. Therefore, optimizing listening environments is necessary to facilitate speech and language development.
Although advancements in hearing technology has allowed children access to spoken language, listening challenges exist in real life: noise, distance and reverberation. Hearing speech directly from the parent to the young child’s hearing aids or cochlear implants through the use of wireless technology such as Roger can minimize these challenges and optimize the listening environment.
Research has proven that by providing wireless technology to children during noisy, challenging listening environments or from a distance can encourage children to imitate speech (Benoit, 1989) and increase language acquisition rates (Moeller et al, 2009). Early intervention best practices encourage coaching parents to foster communication in natural environments like the home (kitchen, bathroom, etc.), playground, the car, play groups, and grocery stores. But there has been little guidance on how early intervention providers can coach families on the benefits of wireless technology for their very young child and practical ideas to help families consistently use wireless technology appropriately across everyday environments.
This interactive session will review relevant research related to the benefits of using wireless technology with very young children, provide hands on experiences with wireless technology, and provide practical ideas to educate, coach families, and use wireless technology in everyday environments.
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Presenters/Authors
Valerie V. Le Beau
(Primary Presenter), Advanced Bionics, ;
Valeri V. Le Beau, M.S.-CCC-SLP, is the Consumer Education and Rehab Manager at Advanced Bionics. Valeri brings a lifetime of personal and professional expertise to the field of hearing impairments. Valeri received her undergraduate degree in Education for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing from Illinois State University. She taught in a variety of educational settings serving children with hearing impairments and later received her graduate degree in Speech Language Pathology from Rush University, Chicago. She practiced across the country in educational, private, and hospital based settings, with an intense focus on providing services to children with hearing impairments. Throughout her career, she has lectured, trained, and mentored on cochlear implantation and rehabilitation following implantation both locally and internationally.
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Meghan Crimmins
(Co-Presenter), ;
Meghan Crimmins, Au.D., CCC-A is an audiologist with ten years of experience providing direct services to individuals with hearing loss. She has worked for Advanced Bionics since 2014, recently transitioning to a clinical specialist role in October 2015. She provides on-site clinical support, product training, initial activations, and assistance with clinical management of difficult cases as part of the Southwest regional team. Prior to joining Advanced Bionics, Meghan worked at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago where she accrued 6 years of programming experience, specializing in programming recipients with atypical anatomy, i.e., CHARGE syndrome. Meghan received her Doctorate of Audiology degree from Rush University in Chicago, IL.
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