Just a quick note from me (Kathleen) before getting into our blog post for this week! Julie finally has some time in her schedule to write some blog posts on the clinical subjects she is passionate about as well. For her first post, we are welcome our audiology professor from Duquesne University for our second installment of "5 Questions With..." to discuss hearing screenings. Please read on to find out why this 5 minute screening test is so important!
It’s that time of year again! Ya know, when your child comes home with a paper that says the school nurse, a speech therapist, or if you’re super lucky, an audiologist is coming to screen the kids for hearing. Personally, I always dreaded hearing screening day at school, especially in high school. Growing up, I had at least 6 tubes in my ears as a kid and plenty of visits to the doctor for chronic ear infections, which I still get, even at 30. I was that weird kid at pool parties who couldn’t go underwater (still can’t) and had to wear wax ear plugs while everyone else was playing Marco Polo. So yes, kids I get why your screaming on the airplane. I’m also screaming internally from the pressure in the cabin.
So, as someone who failed many a hearing screening and now does them as part of her job, we thought we should get some answers about screenings and what they mean straight from an audiologist. I reached out to Dr. Susan Snyder, Au.D CCC-A, an assistant professor/director for Clinical Audiology and Education at Duquesne University.
JS: Why do hearing screenings in the school setting? How often do they happen? Who can perform them?
SS: An unidentified hearing loss in school aged children can be mistaken for behavioral issues, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cognitive impairment or reading disabilities. The PA Dept. of Education recommends hearing screenings for kindergarten through third grade, seventh and eleventh grade. Additionally, children that are enrolled with speech and learning support are required to be screened every year. Also any child who is new to the school, or absent for a long period of time due to illness should be screened. If a child has been identified as hearing impaired they will not be screened but monitored by the educational audiologist in conjunction with the dispensing audiologist. The hearing screenings are usually performed by the school nurse or the speech language pathologist.
SS: The child is typically screened twice at the school within two to three weeks of original screening before a letter is sent home to the parents indicating they failed. If there is active drainage or the need for immediate medical attention, the parents will be contacted sooner.
If your child fails a hearing screening the first thing to do is have your child’s hearing tested by pediatric audiologist who specialized in testing children. Most common causes of school aged children failing hearing screenings is fluid in the ear (otitis media) but sometimes it can be permanent. This hearing evaluation cannot be performed accurately or thoroughly at your pediatrician office!
Tympanometry or tymps is a very quick painless objective way to assess the middle ear and outer ear. If a child fails a tymp. Medical management is usually required as well as an audiological evaluation.
It’s that time of year again! Ya know, when your child comes home with a paper that says the school nurse, a speech therapist, or if you’re super lucky, an audiologist is coming to screen the kids for hearing. Personally, I always dreaded hearing screening day at school, especially in high school. Growing up, I had at least 6 tubes in my ears as a kid and plenty of visits to the doctor for chronic ear infections, which I still get, even at 30. I was that weird kid at pool parties who couldn’t go underwater (still can’t) and had to wear wax ear plugs while everyone else was playing Marco Polo. So yes, kids I get why your screaming on the airplane. I’m also screaming internally from the pressure in the cabin.
So, as someone who failed many a hearing screening and now does them as part of her job, we thought we should get some answers about screenings and what they mean straight from an audiologist. I reached out to Dr. Susan Snyder, Au.D CCC-A, an assistant professor/director for Clinical Audiology and Education at Duquesne University.
JS: Why do hearing screenings in the school setting? How often do they happen? Who can perform them?
SS: An unidentified hearing loss in school aged children can be mistaken for behavioral issues, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cognitive impairment or reading disabilities. The PA Dept. of Education recommends hearing screenings for kindergarten through third grade, seventh and eleventh grade. Additionally, children that are enrolled with speech and learning support are required to be screened every year. Also any child who is new to the school, or absent for a long period of time due to illness should be screened. If a child has been identified as hearing impaired they will not be screened but monitored by the educational audiologist in conjunction with the dispensing audiologist. The hearing screenings are usually performed by the school nurse or the speech language pathologist.
JS: What can someone expect if they fail a hearing screening? What does it mean to fail tymps?
SS: The child is typically screened twice at the school within two to three weeks of original screening before a letter is sent home to the parents indicating they failed. If there is active drainage or the need for immediate medical attention, the parents will be contacted sooner.
If your child fails a hearing screening the first thing to do is have your child’s hearing tested by pediatric audiologist who specialized in testing children. Most common causes of school aged children failing hearing screenings is fluid in the ear (otitis media) but sometimes it can be permanent. This hearing evaluation cannot be performed accurately or thoroughly at your pediatrician office!
Tympanometry or tymps is a very quick painless objective way to assess the middle ear and outer ear. If a child fails a tymp. Medical management is usually required as well as an audiological evaluation.
JS: How does hearing loss affect children?
SS: Hearing loss can be present at birth and 95% of children born with hearing loss have normal hearing parents. 1 in 10 children are born with permanent hearing loss. Thankfully with Early Detection and Hearing Intervention (EDHI) programs we can screen newborns before they go home. We use 2 screenings test, automated auditory brainstem response (AABR) and Otoacoustic Emission (OAE). Both are quick, painless and usually the baby sleeps through them. AABR looks at how the entire auditory system perceives sounds. Clicks or tones are presented by earphones and 3 sticky recording electrodes placed on the baby’s head measure the nerves responses. With OAE, a tiny click producing probe is placed in the child’s ear and it measures the inner ear’s response (echo) to clicks. If you go on YouTube there are tons of parents posting videos of their baby’s first hearing test and you can see how easy it is. This early identification and intervention have created incredible outcomes for children identified with hearing loss.
So I know what parents are thinking, if my child passed their newborn screening, why did they fail preschool or school aged hearing screenings. In most cases, kids love to share all the lovely germs and bacteria with each other and they are susceptible to otitis media and other illness related hearing loss. Thankfully in these cases, medical management is swift and effective. Sometimes though a child can develop hearing loss due to genetic reasons, injury or now, more than ever, noise exposure. We live in a loud world and our children are experiencing recreational noise levels (i.e. wearing earbuds) at loud levels worse than what construction workers are exposed to. This brings me to the next question.
JS: How can you prevent hearing loss?
SS: Noise Induced Hearing loss (NIHL) is completely preventable and can be identified through screenings. The American Academy of Audiology reports that although hearing problems are commonly associated with aging, more than 5 million young people in the United States between the ages of 6 and 19 report noise induced hearing loss. Kids need to dial down the volume on their smartphones, video games and radios by “turning the dial to the left” Please go to the American Academy of Audiology website on more information about this topic.
JS: How does hearing loss affect speech and language development? Will it affect them in the school setting? At home?
SS: The Invisible Acoustic Filter Chain is a model of how the invisible hearing loss can impact future educational outcomes. If you can’t hear the sounds →you can’t sound out words → then you can’t read well →then you have less educational options →and therefore less vocational options. Educational Audiologist Karen Anderson, Ph.D CCC-A has a free website for parents and educators and provides handouts that gives detailed information on how every type and degree of hearing loss impacts learning. Even slight or conductive hearing losses can have educational, social and emotional consequences. Please go to www.successforkidswithhearinloss.com and read Relationship of Hearing Loss to Listening and Learning handouts.
So I know what parents are thinking, if my child passed their newborn screening, why did they fail preschool or school aged hearing screenings. In most cases, kids love to share all the lovely germs and bacteria with each other and they are susceptible to otitis media and other illness related hearing loss. Thankfully in these cases, medical management is swift and effective. Sometimes though a child can develop hearing loss due to genetic reasons, injury or now, more than ever, noise exposure. We live in a loud world and our children are experiencing recreational noise levels (i.e. wearing earbuds) at loud levels worse than what construction workers are exposed to. This brings me to the next question.
JS: How can you prevent hearing loss?
SS: Noise Induced Hearing loss (NIHL) is completely preventable and can be identified through screenings. The American Academy of Audiology reports that although hearing problems are commonly associated with aging, more than 5 million young people in the United States between the ages of 6 and 19 report noise induced hearing loss. Kids need to dial down the volume on their smartphones, video games and radios by “turning the dial to the left” Please go to the American Academy of Audiology website on more information about this topic.
JS: How does hearing loss affect speech and language development? Will it affect them in the school setting? At home?
SS: The Invisible Acoustic Filter Chain is a model of how the invisible hearing loss can impact future educational outcomes. If you can’t hear the sounds →you can’t sound out words → then you can’t read well →then you have less educational options →and therefore less vocational options. Educational Audiologist Karen Anderson, Ph.D CCC-A has a free website for parents and educators and provides handouts that gives detailed information on how every type and degree of hearing loss impacts learning. Even slight or conductive hearing losses can have educational, social and emotional consequences. Please go to www.successforkidswithhearinloss.com and read Relationship of Hearing Loss to Listening and Learning handouts.
Educational audiologists and SLPs work very hard to ensure that students hear well in the classroom and if a child is identified they are fit and monitored with hearing ads, remote microphone hearing aids, soundfield systems, etc. Just improving the signal to noise ratio in the classroom can make the difference between failing and succeeding in academia.
JS: How do you know it's time to more seriously look at seeing an ENT? How is an ENT different from an SLP and Audiologist? How do they all work together?
JS: How do you know it's time to more seriously look at seeing an ENT? How is an ENT different from an SLP and Audiologist? How do they all work together?
SS: An Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist is the lay term for an otorhinolaryngologist. An ENT specializes in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. A child is referred to an ENT when conventional treatment for otitis media is unsuccessful by the pediatrician or the child presents with a perforation or audiological testing indicates that the cause of the hearing loss might be sensorineural (permanent). Parents can also self-refer if they are concerned about hearing, allergies, tonsil or adenoids. An audiologist is a professional who treats hearing or balance disorders. An audiologist has received a Doctorate in Audiology. School districts have an educational audiologist to work with the students who are hard of hearing or deaf. And a pediatric audiologist specialize in working with birth to 21 years of age population. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults.
Audiologist and SLPs work in collaboration with ENTs. The best care for any child is a team approach! For example, the school SLP notices the child has difficulty pronouncing /ch/ or /s/ and screens for hearing loss, the child fails and is referred for full audiological evlaution. It is determined that the child has a bilateral conductive hearing loss. The audiologist refers to ENT and the child is treated either with medicine or grommet tubes. The child is reassessed by the pediatric audiologist who confirms hearing is back to normal and SLP reports improved speech production and reading outcomes.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Hearing screenings help us step in and reverse the effects of hearing loss so that a child can be successful in anything they want to do!
I would like to thank Dr. Snyder for her insight and help for this blog post this week.
Until next time!
Julie
Kathleen again! Some additional info for you guys concerning hearing screenings. We offer them for FREE for all ages here at our office in Bellevue as well as offering free hearing and speech screenings in the community (preschools, assisted living facilities, etc.). We also have the ability to screen using a tympanometer as Dr. Snyder explained above. Our phone is 412-761-4550 or you can email me (Kathleen.rehabspecialists@gmail.com) or Julie (Julie.rehabspecialists@gmail.com). We do this A LOT (as in several times per week almost every week of the year) and we are passionate about early detection.
Information for the Duquesne University clinic, where Dr. Snyder practices and offers her wonderful services, can be found at below:
Website: https://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/health-sciences/academic-programs/speech-language-pathology/department-facilities/speech-language-hearing-clinic
Phone: 412.396.4200
Email: slhclinic@duq.edu
Audiologist and SLPs work in collaboration with ENTs. The best care for any child is a team approach! For example, the school SLP notices the child has difficulty pronouncing /ch/ or /s/ and screens for hearing loss, the child fails and is referred for full audiological evlaution. It is determined that the child has a bilateral conductive hearing loss. The audiologist refers to ENT and the child is treated either with medicine or grommet tubes. The child is reassessed by the pediatric audiologist who confirms hearing is back to normal and SLP reports improved speech production and reading outcomes.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Hearing screenings help us step in and reverse the effects of hearing loss so that a child can be successful in anything they want to do!
I would like to thank Dr. Snyder for her insight and help for this blog post this week.
Until next time!
Julie
Kathleen again! Some additional info for you guys concerning hearing screenings. We offer them for FREE for all ages here at our office in Bellevue as well as offering free hearing and speech screenings in the community (preschools, assisted living facilities, etc.). We also have the ability to screen using a tympanometer as Dr. Snyder explained above. Our phone is 412-761-4550 or you can email me (Kathleen.rehabspecialists@gmail.com) or Julie (Julie.rehabspecialists@gmail.com). We do this A LOT (as in several times per week almost every week of the year) and we are passionate about early detection.
Information for the Duquesne University clinic, where Dr. Snyder practices and offers her wonderful services, can be found at below:
Website: https://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/health-sciences/academic-programs/speech-language-pathology/department-facilities/speech-language-hearing-clinic
Phone: 412.396.4200
Email: slhclinic@duq.edu
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