UI Neurosciences
On Friday, April 27, University of Iowa Children's Hospital is sponsoring a one-day introductory seminar on language development for young children with hearing loss. Bruce Gantz, MD, the Professor and Head of the University of Iowa Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, talks about the event and hearing loss in young children:
What are the percentages of children born with hearing loss?
Approximately one in 1,000 children are born with a pretty profound hearing loss. There may be two to three children out of 1,000 with a severe hearing loss, meaning that those children would probably benefit from hearing aids, whereas the profound child may not benefit from a hearing aid.
Are all newborns tested for hearing loss, or how is it discovered?
In the state of Iowa, we're fortunate that newborn hearing screening is mandatory in all birth centers in the surrounding area and the state. Universal hearing screening is a growing trend in the United States; not necessarily mandatory in every state, but typically children are screened by an audiologist, an auditory assistant, or a nurse. They use a system in which they can play echoes into the eardrum. If the ear hears the sound, it will respond and it's called an otoacoustic emission. Some children fail that otoacoustic emission just because they may have fluid in the ears or whatever, but they should see a hearing professional such as an otolaryngologist if they are concerned about the hearing, and we can look in the ears and see if the ears are clear or what else could be the problem.
What options do parents have when their child is born deaf?
If they are completely deaf, hearing aids usually do not offer much in the way of language development and speech development. A child could be manually educated with sign language; however, 95 percent of the children that are born deaf are born to hearing families and most families would like their children to grow up with speech and language. The only way to assist that is to intervene early with cochlear implants. We have children now growing up with normal or near normal language and reading and speech skills if we get the devices in at approximately one year of age.
Do all children born with a hearing loss qualify to receive a cochlear implant?
If it's a hearing loss that can be amplified with hearing aids, we want to get the hearing aids on them as quickly as possible. As the child develops, and if the child is developing normal language skills, we would not intervene with a cochlear implant, we would just continue to aid that child until a point where we felt they weren't making progress and then we would decide, with the parents, what the next option would be.
How long do cochlear implants last?
Well, we're hoping that they last for 70 to 80 years. Some of the first ones that we put in in the early 80s and late 70s are still functioning. They've improved them significantly, more in the area of software development than the hardware, and so many of the devices that we placed back in the 80s have been retrofit to newer speech processors that have really enhanced the performance in some individuals.
Let's talk a minute about the day-long event on Friday. Who is invited to attend?
We are inviting educators, early interventional professionals, pediatric speech pathologists, pediatric audiologists, and parents. If they have a child that has hearing loss and wants them to learn more about language development, they are invited to come.
Where is the event located?
It's going to be in the Center for Disabilities and Development on the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics campus.
Is there a fee to attend?
Yes, there is a small fee and includes the conference materials and breakfast and lunch.
Who are the speakers at the event?
We have a celebrity coming, Heather Whitestone McCallum. Heather was a Miss America, she won the Miss America title in 1995, and was the first individual to win that title that had a disability.
She had a hearing aid at the time and when she got married and had children, she wanted to be able to hear her children better and opted for a cochlear implant, and then had a second cochlear implant in the other ear, so she wears two cochlear implants. She's a wonderful spokesperson for people that have hearing loss and shows how they function with cochlear implants.
Donald Goldberg from the Cleveland Clinic and Dianne Hammes of the Carle Clinic who are interventional specialists, will also speak.
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