All About Audiology - Hearing Resources to Empower YOU

Lilach Saperstein
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Hearing Resources to Empower YOU

  1. 05/05/2023

    All About ADHD & APD Auditory Processing Disorder: Tools, Evaluation, and Treatment – Episode 94 with Dr. Ruth Resiman

    Today’s episode is a conversation with Dr. Ruth Reisman, https://www.urbanhearing.com/about-us about the connections between auditory processing disorder (APD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We discuss the process of evaluation and how a tailored treatment plan can help people who are finding listening and processing spoken language to be challenging. SHOW NOTES & TIME STAMPS: Introduction and background 2:19 – Becoming an audiologist. Advice for students. 4:57 – What is APD? 6:20 – Signs you may want to explore APD evaluation. 7:28 – The frustrations and misunderstandings surrounding under/misdiagnosed APD. 8:25 – Process of APD diagnosis. 12:00 – Every patient is unique! Overlaps between APD and ADHD. 18:00 – Multiple reasons why people interrupt? 19:42 – Developing a treatment plan for APD. 24:57 – The value of diagnosis/label. 28:13 – Overlap and similarities between APD therapy and aural rehabilitation following cochlear implantation/ hearing aid usage. 31:20 – Cautioning about generalized advice for patients, eg. “listen to audiobooks, listen to music while following the lyrics. 32:15 – Complexity of music. 33:30 – The diversity of patients and focusing on each individual’s story. 34:26 – Building a relationship with your audiologist. 34:39 – Ways to work with Dr. Reisman, in New York, Florida and Bermuda, virtually as well. RELATED EPISODES: ALL ABOUT AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER & SOUND SENSITIVITIES PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDERS https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/thriving-in-the-midst-of-chaos-934874/episodes/auditory-processing-disorder-w-81682839 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-18-auditory-processing-disorder-apd-crash-course/id1524865133?i=1000519524920 TRANSCRIPT: [00:00:00] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Welcome to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein and I’m very excited today to be speaking with Dr. Ruth Reisman in New York. I know that many, many of you have questions about auditory processing disorder, the process of getting diagnosis, what the treatment is, what even is auditory processing disorder in kids and adults. So, I’m really excited for a very informative conversation. First, let me welcome Dr. Ruth. How are you? Welcome. [00:00:34] Dr. Ruth Reisman: Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here and to have the opportunity to speak with you and present on this platform. I am, as you said, from New York. I support the audiology field in multiple aspects. In addition to my private practice where I do work with individuals that have auditory processing disorders predominantly focusing on individuals that actually have. ADHD as a comorbid disorder. And I’ll explain as I go into that, as to why that became my area of focus or a specialty. [00:01:06] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: I have to tell you right away that that Venn diagram I discussed that Venn diagram on the regular, so we’re going to go into that for sure. [00:01:14] Dr. Ruth Reisman: Great. Great. I’m excited to talk about it and, and, and let you know how I got into that. And then in addition to that, I do work at a cochlear implant company or hearing implant company, I should say, cuz it’s not just cochlear implants called Medel. So, we support patients with their implants as well and, and aural rehabilitation, just like auditory processing comes into play in that arena as well. And then one of my favorite things to do is to teach at the university and I teach multiple classes on, on all of these wonderful things, aural rehab, hearing aids, so I’m happy to talk about anything always related to audiology. [00:01:50] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Same. Anytime we find someone who’s going to talk to me about these things, I’m like totally into it. sign me up. These are my topics. So, I think a lot of people are curious as to how you got into audiology in the first place. You know, if you thought at the beginning when you got into it that you would be involved in all these other things down the line. [00:02:11] Dr. Ruth Reisman: Yeah, no, that’s a great question. I guess audiology kind of chose me, which I, which I always say as I go through the field, all of these areas kind of choose me. Initially I had started actually in pharmacy, so I was doing a lot of science-based courses. I actually witnessed my mother suffer through hearing loss, so she had bilateral otosclerosis as she was having children and, and as we were growing up it got progressively worse. So, I’ve seen her go through the process of diagnosis, getting hearing aids and then getting surgery and her hearing actually going back to normal. So, it was a really interesting, to witness her go through all of those stages and I became really very interested in the field of audiology. It started of course with, with speech therapy, like the majority of audiologists start, and I kind of got into the field that way, but I fell in love with audiology because of the diagnostic and the rehabilitative nature and how we can really see results with our patients. [00:03:09] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Yes, that first audiology course grabs a lot of people [laughs]. [00:03:14] Dr. Ruth Reisman: I would agree. [00:03:16] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Can you tell any advice for some of the students who listen? Cause we do have many students of communication disorders all around the world who message me on Instagram, always do that. Come say hi and ask for advice. What should I do? Should this speech, should I do audiology? What advice would you have for students in general. [00:03:35] Dr. Ruth Reisman: Yeah, I think both speech and audiology are very dynamic as fields. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. Right.  I would encourage anyone who’s considering the field or who is enrolled in a speech and hearing program to go and speak to audiologists like myself and, and like you, to get a feel for what the field is about, what we’re able to do within the field, all of the options and opportunities because they’re really vast and I really think it’s such a rewarding field. Like, we really have the opportunity to do so much in terms of helping patients, diagnosing their issues, offering different rehabilitation options. And it’s not just about hearing loss and hearing aids. There’s balance, there’s tinnitus, there’s, aural rehab, auditory processing. So, it’s so, so dynamic and I think communicating or connecting with individuals that are in the field will give you a real sense of what’s available within the realm of audiology. [00:04:34] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: That’s great advice. Connecting with actual people. You know, you can, you can Google search for a long time and listen to podcasts and you should do that, but the end of it, you know, find your local audiologist, the local community. And see if you can hop by for a day. Just watch and see what happened. That was so valuable to me when I was an undergrad. I did that for a while. [00:04:57] Dr. Ruth Reisman: Yeah, I would agree. [00:04:58] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: So, let’s dive into auditory processing disorder [00:05:01] Dr. Ruth Reisman: Sure. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, auditory processing is probably one of the more complex things that we work with in audiology. A lot of people, like I said, think of, okay, a patient has hearing loss, let’s give them hearing aids. But there are actual patients that it’s not hearing loss that is causing their hearing difficulty or causing their challenges. Sometimes it can be in conjunction with hearing loss, but the majority of individuals that actually have auditory processing challenges usually have normal hearing. So, we test them on a hearing test. Their hearing is normal. But the way that they’re reporting their subjective responses sounds like they have a really significant hearing loss. So, it’s this disconnect between what our hearing test is showing and what they’re actually reporting in terms of, how they function in their day-to-day life. So, it’s a very real, disorder and a way that we can kind of subjectively and objectively quantify it. And the way that we do that is we use a lot of questionnaires, subjective questionnaires. So, we want to get insight from the patients, you know, where are they feeling like they’re having hearing challenges, what are their concerns? And then objectively actually doing testing to measure that if there is any deficit. Where does this deficit lie? So, some of the signs that you may experience that may indicate that you need this kind of evaluation is like I said, having normal hearing, but still feeling like you’re not hearing well in different environments. A lot of times it’s in noisy environments or environments that are less than ideal, like classroom settings, office settings where it’s large open spaces. There’s a lot of reverberation, so sounds bouncing off the walls and things like that. You find communication really difficult in those environments. A lot of my patients complain, like now that they’re going back into work after being, on Zoom calls throughout Covid, that they’re starting to have a lot of difficulty in those types of settings, in social settings, in business meetings. The kids in the school environments now going back really into their day-to-day life, they find it even more challenging than before Covid. So, there is this kind of effect that they’re saying that even Covid enhanced or created some more auditory processing challenges for individuals. [00:07:20] Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Yeah, and I, I think from the people I’ve worked with the biggest complaint they come in with and it’s very emotional. It’s very

    36 min

  2. 02/01/2023

    All About You: Independently taking charge of your hearing loss   – Episode 93 with Xinke Liu 

    Read the full transcript here On today’s episode of The All About Audiology Podcast Dr. Lilach Saperstein share with Xinke Liu. Xinke is from China and was diagnosed with hearing loss at 15 years old. Currently, she is the  co-founder of Orka. The two speak about Xinke’s experiences with hearing aids, Cochlear Implants, multilingualism and multiculturalism. Despite her family not being that involved in her hearing loss experience, Xinke has become her biggest self advocate and this quality of hers shines throughout the conversation. This week on the All About Audiology podcast:   4:30 – Certain unwanted behaviors that we see in children who are Deaf of HoH are attributed to their hearing loss. 6:22 – Cultural norms can be a barrier for one to recognize that they might have hearing loss. 7:10 – Turning captions on during a TV show or movie is an example of Universal Design. 13:22 – Just because someone receives a hearing aid or CI, doesn’t mean that it’s doing its job correctly or that it’s fit properly. 32:00 – It is helpful to talk about your own or a loved one’s hearing loss journey so that all the feelings do not get bubbled up inside. 43:00 – It is crucial to seek treatment as soon as possible For more resources and research visit: All About Audiology Website  All About Audiology Facebook group   All About Audiology Instagram Related Episodes: Podcast episode about Universal Design Mentioned in this episode: Patreon Orka Podcast episode about Universal Design The All About Audilogy Facebook Group All About Audiology on Tiktok All About Audiology on Instagram https://drlilach.teachable.com/p/all-about-you-52 Transcript: Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Welcome back to The All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein, and this is a very interesting and special episode – All About You: an interview with Xinke Liu, who is going to talk about her journey with hearing aids, Cochlear Implants, and also about multilingualism, multiculturalism, moving around the world. And I’m really excited to share this story with you and have Xinke share her  experiences. Many parents and people who have a Deaf or HoH child in their life are in this All About Audiology community, and everyone should feel that their story is represented in some way. So lots and lots of different people have shared their story on the podcast, and I invite you to do the same. If you’re interested in being a guest – DM me on Instagram and be in touch so that our community can continue to grow and help each other and support one another. So welcome Xinke. How are you? Xinke Liu: I’m good. Thank you. I am thrilled to be here. So happy to be here. I mean, I wish there was a program like All About Audiology when I first knew I had hearing loss when I was 15. So with all this information, my hearing journey would have been a lot different. I would not have wasted like 7 years before finding the right solution for me. And the transcript – I mean, I’m sure you’re pulling a lot of effort, proofreading and correcting the transcripts and for us with hearing loss it’s always such a delight to see a podcast, with accurate transcripts. So thank you, Dr. Lilach. LS: Oh, thanks for mentioning that! Because it always is so important to be accessible! I’m trying to do something for a particular community of people. Of course it would be my goal to do that. And yet it’s a big, like you said, effort and expense. So I’m grateful to the supporters of the podcast. If anyone wants to join our Patreon, this is a good time to mention that your support really helps for the production of the show. But I know that there’s always more to do like captioning on Instagram stories and making sure [there is] accessible, alternate text. There’s always more things I’m learning but thanks for mentioning that. So I’d love to hear a little bit about your background if you could start. Where were you born? And how did you grow up? XL: So my name is Xinke Liu. I was born in China. I had hearing loss when I was 15 years old. Now, I’m a bilateral cochlear implant user, but before that I used hearing aids for about 7 years. And now I’m the co-founder of Orka. Orka is a hearing aid company. We design hearing aids, [and] general purpose chips. LS: So before the age of 15. Did you have any problems with your hearing? Did anyone in the family have any suspicions? What was it like growing up? XL: No one ever suspected that. I think it’s kind of absurd because when I had my first hearing test at age 15, the results came out. And it was profoundly severe on one side, and severe on the other side, so at that point I should have went straight with cochlear implants, but I didn’t. And I think me and my family just kind of ignored the signs, because I wasn’t struggling in school. I wasn’t struggling making friends or anything. I thought I was just having attention deficiency problem. I remember that I used to talk to my friends, and when they answer me I started drifting away, and then I would remind myself, Okay, don’t do this. Now pay attention. So I would ask my friends to repeat them[selves], and I think it works like when they repeat them when focus[ing], I seem to understand them better. But now, looking back, I know I was just compensating for my late hearing loss with lip reading. LS: Wow! That sounds so effortful, so exhausting. And I love for parents to listen to this and know that a lot of the behaviors that we see in children who are Deaf of HoH – they’re attributed to the hearing loss, but we may not know that. So we see kids who are rude or ignoring you, not paying attention, and all of those behaviors we’re putting our interpretation of it. But really it could be they didn’t have access to the sound; they’re not ignoring or being rude or not paying attention if they’re not hearing that, and that’s so hard for you to have dealt with.  You were hard on yourself, or you’re not paying attention. And all the things that you didn’t even know you were missing. And then to say: Oh, it was a hearing the whole time. That’s so frustrating!  XL: Yeah, and I think the thing with lip reading is that maybe because I was a kid [at that time]. So, lip reading wasn’t that exhausting for me. I mean, if you want me to do lip reading now, I would definitely say no, but I was a kid. I didn’t know what I was not hearing, and I guess it’s also related to The Chinese language. It’s because we have different accents, different dialects here in China. So the TV shows always have captioning on. And the movies always come with captions. So I never had trouble understanding these, because we had different dialects. People already have problems understanding each other if they’re not speaking Mandarin. So I didn’t suspect it was my problem. I just thought, oh, it’s noisy! Oh, that’s what happens to everyone else. Well, looking back, I know I was struggling, but then I didn’t feel like I was struggling, or it was frustrating at all. I was just thinking, why [do] people have radio – like I can’t really hear that much from radio. I don’t think that’s an efficient way of communicating information. But now, looking back, I know. Oh, yeah, because I wasn’t hearing what they were saying. LS: Yeah. So it was more normal for you. You didn’t realize that everyone else wasn’t experiencing that as well XL: Yeah, right? I just didn’t know. I thought everybody was just studying by themselves. So I didn’t ask. I didn’t know you were supposed to, you know, listen [to] what the teachers have to say in class LS: Ah yeah, you mentioned the word over compensating before – that you had so many other ways to do the things you were expected to do. So you studied from the book, and you saw the captions. That’s very, very interesting. XL: Yeah. LS: We did an episode a while back on something called Universal Design, and how when there’s more accessibility, it doesn’t only help people who are disabled in a specific way. But it actually helps everybody. Like you’re mentioning that there’s always captioning on TV because of the language. That is not only helping people with hearing loss, but it’s actually probably helpful to everybody from the language aspect. And also, you know, from not having to put so much effort into listening to the TV. So I’m gonna link that episode about how when we use accessibility tools, if they’re universal, that benefits most people – even people without the specific quote on quote issue that it could be helping.  XL: Yeah, actually I took a class in universal universal design before, when I was doing my master’s program. I took a class called Disability Studies, and the professor told us about this universal design. And we visited a campus that was specializing in universal design in Berkeley, California. So I think it’s great. And I also kind of envy the students of the Covid era, because when they are doing the online courses they always have the captions on. LS: Yeah, in a lot of ways there were a lot of advances in going online. I’ve heard people also say the fact that when you’re in a class of 20 people, let’s say, and everyone is in the screen equally, then that’s more helpful than physically being in a room and having to look around and catch all the different conversations. So there’s definitely some pros, even with a lot of the challenges that came with being online. So that’s good that you noticed that. I’d like to ask you a little bit more about what happened after you got the hearing aids. And did you start to notice the change in all the things you had been missing? So

    45 min

  3. 01/12/2023

    All About Mindfulness – Episode 92

    Read the full transcript here Welcome to the first ever episode, part of the All About You 52 project brought to you by Dr. Lilach Saperstein from The All About Audiology Podcast. As of 2023, the All About You 52 is a brand new project that Dr. Lilach Saperstein is bringing to you. This project will bring you weekly audio based meditations. The meditation sessions will last for a few minutes. Each week, you can listen to it on your own time and during your own busy schedule each week. By signing up, you will receive a short audio clip of Dr. Lilach Saperstein teaching you a different exercise or going through a different type of visualization or meditation that you can do in a short amount of time. As an added bonus, you will also get journal prompts. To see if this program is a good fit for you, you can sign up for a 7 day trial. After that, you just have to pay $9 a month. Let Dr. Saperstein guide you in connecting to your inner self, slowing down, and gaining a set of tools that you can utilize when the stressors of life arise.  This week on the All About Audiology podcast:   0:10 – Introduction to the episode  8:40 – Snippet from the kickoff call: Mindfulness is not clearing your head; it is focusing on the here and now  14:40 – Take some time to relax, reflect, and be in the moment with this guided meditation For more resources and research visit: All About Audiology Website  All About Audiology Facebook group   All About Audiology Instagram Mentioned in this episode: Connect And Advocate group All About Audiology Summit Kickoff call The All About Audiology Podcast Transcript: Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein. It is January, 5th 2023, when I’m recording this in not the most ideal audio conditions to be honest, I’m in a very reverberant room. And that is because I got rid of a bunch of furniture in this office space /guest room that I record out of. And so it does sound, not the best, but I felt that it’s very important for me to model the fact that “perfection is the enemy of the good” and I miss you guys and I want to talk to you.  And I want to get a podcast episode out for you to tell you about the incredible, amazing community that we are coming together for this year in a project: All About You 52. All About You 52 is something I have really been percolating on for a long time. Well, let me explain it like this: a year and a half or so. We had our Connect And Advocate group with just a very small and intimate group of moms who all have Deaf or HoH children. And we came together three times a month, not exactly weekly, but very close and intense bond working together on how to advocate for your children, how to feel connected to them, and most importantly – how to connect to ourselves what we want and the kind of vision of our families. And in that Connect And Advocate group, some absolute magic was happening. And one of the things that I really, really enjoyed sharing with the group were these audio meditations and mindfulness exercises, being able to connect with your breath with your intention with your hopes, with your dreams, with your fears, with your anxieties, like just with whatever is and those sessions that we had sometimes the most powerful things that were coming out of our work together was because and thankfully due to those [meditation] tools. And then on a personal note, I have also really benefited from mindfulness techniques and really, really tuning into myself in my surroundings. So, what I created with this All About You 52 is something that I wanted to take all those tools and make it wrapped up into very small bite size and accessible and convenient short audios week by week – 52 weeks of the year. With a small but simple and powerful technique to learn together and work on as a community. So in the All About You 52 group, which already has several members that are ready to go [and] it’s never too late because this project is ongoing throughout the year; jump in at any time no matter when you’re hearing this. If you join the community then you will have weekly new episodes that are exactly five to 10 minutes and it’s just a short audio clip of me teaching you a different exercise or going through a different type of visualization or meditation that you can do in a short amount of time. And journal prompts and discussion questions to really get you thinking about how you will make your week the best week.  I know there’s a lot of energy around the New Year, and around new beginnings, around changes in seasons – where we really want to be our best selves and we want the most for our lives. But we also have to be realistic because as much as it’s exciting to open up a new notebook or you know, start a new project, it’s the accountability that we need to keep us consistent. So there’s something really magical and powerful that’s going to happen when we all come together on this.  And now I want to ask you a question: If you were to say, hey, I really want to try this. I want to try to become more intentional about my thoughts. I want to feel more awareness and connection with my breath and my body and my thoughts and my feelings. But I don’t have a lot of time and I don’t have a lot of money. And I know that you are busy. You have so many priorities that you’re juggling. So it was really, super important for me to make this as accessible and open to our community as possible.  And so in order to join us, first of all, you have a seven day free trial. So if you want to come in and check out all the audios that are already in there, including an entire bonus library of meditations that we’ve done in the past, well you can join and take a look around and see the audios and have an experience with it yourself. You know, see how you feel within our group and if it fits for you. If you don’t like it, you cancel and that’s totally fine. But you definitely have free access to see if it’s for you. And then if you decide to stay on with us, it’s just $9 a month. $9. I really wanted to make it as simple and easy for as many people as possible to be able to experience this.  Now I’m not saying that I’m some like meditation teacher that knows something that you don’t know. I’ve just had quite a number of years of experience with many different practitioners. And I found that I really connect to the idea that it doesn’t have to be complicated. That there’s no right answer. But I can walk you through some of the very cool and interesting techniques that I have learnt and just put it together in a way that feels really natural and accessible. And doing it as a community for me is an absolute goal and the dream. But I really created this with you in mind.  And I know I’ve spoken to many of you on Instagram, many of you have come to The Hear Retreats that we did in the last few years and participated in the All About Audiology Summit. All of these projects have been so important to me and to you guys. But I wanted to create something different this year – something from a different pace and from a different place in my heart coming from my healing journey. And I talked about more of that in the kickoff call that we had, which by the way you can still listen to you’ll have a link in the show notes – to see the call that we did where I shared my year end review. I went through all of my 2022 accomplishments. I will be happy to leave that name behind for that year. Moving onto 2023 baby. Throughout that call, I shared so much of the ups, the downs, the challenges, the wins and the joys of my year, really breaking down the places where mindfulness and meditation has played such a key role for me.  In addition to many other things, right, in addition to therapy and support and my network and so many other things that have been beneficial to me, but you know that I’m going to keep it honest and real with you guys. It has not been easy. It’s not been an easy time and there have been quite a number of intense challenges and a lot of integration and processing and healing within the context of real life, within the context of having this beautiful business, and seeing my in-person clients, and raising my beautiful children, and maintaining the important relationships that are crucial for us.  So that’s enough of me telling you why this is important to me. We will be absolutely getting back to audiology related topics on the podcast very soon. We’ve got some really cool guests lined up this year. But I really, really want to invite you to join us to All About You 52. There’s links in the show notes. And if you’re on my mailing list, you have gotten some emails from me about it.  For a lot of us we tend to put ourselves at the bottom of the list of priorities and expenses and things that we need to do and take care of and that is totally natural because for many of us that is a huge part of our role. We are managing our families, and advocating for our children, and doing all the incredible things that you are doing – IEP meetings, and audiology appointments. and all the other appointments that you’re going to. Plus the house and your own job and career and aspirations and relationships. Like there is so much to juggle. So I really wanted to make this easy, easy for you to slip into your week, a short five to seven minute audio that will really help you feel reconnected quickly. A community that keeps you accountable. And it’s going to be weekly. 52 audios and we will be on our way. All right. This is the introduction to All About You 52 and you can listen. I hope it was meaningful to you and please head over to the show notes to Instagram or Facebook or send me a message or anything else to find a link to join

    21 min

  4. 09/14/2022

    Gearing Up for the All About Audiology Summit

    Read the full transcript here In a special edition of the All About Audiology podcast, Dr. Lilach Saperstein is excited to share the inside scoop about the All About Audiology Summit. The summit will feature 20 speakers and conversations that will help guide you along your journey. The Summit is taking place from September 19th till September 22nd. Tune in to learn where to purchase your FREE ticket and information about the guests.  Guests who will be featured at the All About Audiology Summit,  Please note that the following list is not in any specific order: Abbi Perets Dr. Angela Loucks Alexander Dr. Michelle Hu Dr. Yona Saperstein Germaine Graham Janna Cowper Dr. Kathleen Wallace  Kellina Powell  Dr. Kelsey Kerkhove Kimberly Sanzo  Kris Daria  Lola Brito  Mallorie Evans  Marcela Collier Marlene Medina Nero Natalia Popham Rebbetzin Bat-Chen Grossman Dr. Sarah Sparks  Valli Gideons For more resources and research visit: All About Audiology Summit All About Audiology Website  All About Audiology Facebook group   All About Audiology Instagram And the Prodana pay-it-forward platform here: https://prodana.org/practioner/lilach-saperstein/audiology-counseling–dr–lilach-saperstein Transcript Lilach Saperstein: Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. This is a special recording for you guys. This is Dr. Lilach Saperstein, and I am so honored to invite you to the All About Audiology Summit. After three years of running this amazing podcast and hearing so much from the amazing participation that we’ve had over different retreats, workshops, and The Support Group, The Connect and Advocate Group – all these different things that we’ve done as a community. I’ve learned from all of you and heard from so many of you how helpful it is to take some of those explanations, and discussions, and experiences with audiology on the go, or outside the podcast, or in a space and environment where you’re much more able, and comfortable, and receptive to having these things. Because in the clinic – when you’re in the audiology clinic – or you’re at the hearing test, you’re at the audiologist office, time in the clinic is precious and limited. And it can feel like there’s all this pressure, you have to do all the testing, and the fitting, and the mapping. And there’s this energy like you have to understand everything all at once [through] discussing these really big lifelong decisions. And they have to be made soon. But also there’s all these feelings that come up and all of these emotions that you don’t necessarily know that, that’s what’s happening. So you want to ask all your questions and gather all your information and resources. But it’s not always so easy to do that in the moment. And from the audiologist side it’s the same because audiologists are really doing everything, having your child on the focus as it should be during those appointments. But sometimes audiologist really wants to say ‘hey, how are you doing?’ with the parents and the family members who are there. Your journey is also happening the same time as your child’s of course. So I really believe that putting the parents experience at the center is number one. It’s my vision with the podcast and everything I’ve done. So I had the idea of making this mega summit event with 20 incredible speakers, so I cannot wait to invite you to the  All About Audiology Summit. The dates are September 19 to the 22nd. But even if you’re hearing this after that, we are going to have all the recordings available. So definitely check out https://allaboutaudiology.com/summit/ to sign up. If you come during the days of the summit, the videos and the recordings will be available for 24 hours free of charge. So I’m really really excited. And after that if anyone wants to purchase the entire bundle of all the recordings with their transcripts and special offers from our speakers that will be available as well.  So I just want to run through the amazing speakers we have just so that you know who to come and see and to encourage you to come, and attend, or be a part of the summit in whatever way works for you. Okay, so we have different categories, right so definitely some audiologists talking about various topics, some speech language pathologists, and also Deaf and Hard of Hearing adults themselves. And also advocates, and parents, writers and coaches. Okay, so let’s dive it. Here’s what I gotta tell you. First of all, there’s Abbi Perets. Abbi Perets was on the podcast a while back talking about her son who has microtia, but also her entire family and their journey also with another child in the family who was sick with leukemia and all the different things. She’s been through a lot of different parts of the parenting journey with children with special needs, and as well as being a freelance writer and teaching others how to be freelance writers. So Abbi Perets is fabulous. We have a great conversation in the summit [called] Business Success As a Special Needs Mom.  You definitely want to come to the talk with Dr. Angela Loucks Alexander, who you may know from her TED talk about Auditory Processing Disorder. We talked about how the future of audiology is in the brain. Okay, we really want to support our children’s needs and accommodations.  So after that, I think you all know Dr. Michelle Hu. And she shares more about her personal journey and mission. She also has been on the podcast in the past.  I also invited my husband. Dr. Yona Saperstein is a family physician. And we have quite a chat about what your doctor really thinks of you. [We also spoke about] How to Talk to your kids’ doctor and what doctors are really needing to know and what they’re interested in from that perspective. So that was kind of fun to do. You get to meet my hubby. Germaine Graham, is an SLP and we talked a lot about how things are different at home versus at school. She’s got [her] deafinitely communicating Instagram account and doing the ABC series right now. So definitely check that out on Instagram with Germaine. And our presentation together was really, really interesting. Our conversation [was] on taking a deep breath and trying to do things in bite sized pieces.  Janna Cowper, hard of hearing mama on Instagram. The talk was really about how her journey growing up [with] Hard of Hearing is very different from that of her children who are also Hard of Hearing and how it’s okay that they’re different. That was such a moving conversation we had, and I love Janna. She has also been on the podcast before so you can also hear more of her story there.  Dr. Kathleen Wallace is an audiologist I went to graduate school with. and she presented on third party disability, which means like – well, you have to come to the talk to hear more about it – but it’s all about how if one person in the family has a disability, then actually it impacts the entire family and impacts siblings, parents, and friends and [how] everybody in that environment also has some elements of accessibility needs as being a family member to somebody with disabilities. So that was a really important presentation that she made for the summit.  Do you remember Kalina Powell who came on the podcast a little while back? [who is also known as] DeafQueenBoss, who was also writing a book about her experiences growing up deaf, and she really gave a good conversation about [the time] when there was one person who advocated for her and who saw her for who she was. What an impact they had on her.  Dr. Kelsey Kerkhove is a pediatric audiologist. You definitely want to come to our talk. It was kind of funny. It was almost like looking in a mirror. Because everything she was saying I was like, ‘oh, that’s what I believe.’ And then I would say something and she said ‘that’s what I believe’. What really matters is that your child is at the center of the family is the focus and all the audiology things that we’re trying to do are in service of a good, and happy, and healthy life for the family, not just so that they can hear at a certain level, and have access to sounds at certain dB’s. That was a great talk with Kelsey Kerkhove. You definitely know that I’m a big fan of Kimberly Sanzo with Language First. And so she also provided an amazing presentation all about language over speech, the difference between speech and language, and how to ensure that Deaf kids can acquire language. I think the piece that really stuck out to me from her talk, I shared this on Instagram as well, was the difference between exposure and access. And really defining all these terms that we hear a lot. You may hear them from our audiologists or speech pathologists, online and,books. Once you start defining what do all these terms mean, what does it mean to communicate, what does it mean to develop language? So definitely, definitely Kimberly’s talk is so important to help us understand and navigate all these terms. And really, as a parent of a Deaf or Hard of Hearing child, when you come into the world of audiology, when someone in your life has hearing loss, you end up getting very educated on a lot of things, and learning and getting so much information. So I really hope this summit will be a part of that journey for you: of gathering information, resources, and tools. And then using that to make the best decisions for your family.  I’ll keep going down the list of all the amazing speakers. Kris Daria is a mother to a young boy who is deaf, and uses cochlear implants, and has had a lot of different changes and turning points throughout her journey that we talked about and navigating all of that. Kris is also a part of the Connect and Advocate Group. And so she talks a bit about that a

    16 min

  5. 07/28/2022

    All About Finding The Resources That Best Fit Your Family – Episode 91 with Dr. Karen Muñoz

    Read the full transcript here In this episode, Dr. Saperstain speaks with Dr. Karen Muñoz. Dr. Muñoz is an audiologist of many years and department head and professor of communicative disorders and deaf education at Utah state university. Dr. Karen Muñoz specialized in the administrative, educational, and research fields of audiology after spending many years as a clinical practitioner. She also started the Hear to Learn  (Oir para aprender) program which is a website with many resources for parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This week on the All About Audiology podcast: 9:15 – Parents are the key to how intervention is going to go for their child. And what I would like parents to really embrace is how essential they are. 12:35 – Oftentimes audiologists want to focus on the technical stuff. We got a lot we do have to care about and we have to care about what’s happening with the parent and their thoughts and feelings that can interfere with what goes on every single day that they’re with a child 15:50 – The resources that bridge the hearing care team and the parents. 20:00 –  Even when parents get a “hearing aid care kit”  too often, they don’t use it, or don’t know what to do with it. 23:05 –  How parents can make informed decisions.  27:10 – And I think as ethical professionals It’s about having those conversations about what are their underlying thoughts, feelings, and questions. That’s where we focus our efforts to be, that support for the families and helping them get what they need 29:30 – We are in a really key position to make sure they have the information that they need, we are not in the position to tell them what they have to do, but we’re there to help them have confidence! For more resources and research visit: All About Audiology Website  All About Audiology Facebook group   All About Audiology Instagram And the Prodana pay-it-forward platform here: https://prodana.org/practioner/lilach-saperstein/audiology-counseling–dr–lilach-saperstein Guest’s links: Hear to Learn Mentioned in this episode: H.E.A.R retreatsLanguage firstPeach questionnaireLittle Ears questionnaire Listen Next/Related Episodes Mallorie Evans Transcript: Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein, and this is the show where we talk about audiology in ways that really actually matter to you.  If you are a parent of a deaf or hard-of-hearing child or you’ve just come into the world of Audiology, welcome to the show! There is an entire library of 86 plus episodes on all different topics. So go ahead to allaboutaudiology.com, put whatever search term you are dealing with, a hearing test, hearing aids, cochlear implants, any particular kind of diagnosis that you want to look into, maybe we’ve done an episode on it. And also as well as educational topics, advocacy topics, so you have lots to look at in the library at allaboutaudiology.com with full transcripts and show notes for each of the episodes. So definitely make use of the search bar there.  Also, before we jump into today’s episode, I want to thank you all so much for being listeners and supporters of the show. To become a supporter of the show and help with production costs and transcription costs and editing costs then you can become a patron at patreon.com/allaboutaudiology, and that really, really, really helps. Even a small contribution is so appreciated.  And lastly, I would like to invite you to join the mailing list so you are kept up to date about the upcoming H.E.A.R retreats that we run every so often online, which is an incredible gathering of parents from around the world talking about the real-life aspects of raising deaf or hard of hearing child. What really comes along with that processing… our own emotions, our own journey around this, as well as processing and helping our kids becoming really powerful self-advocates as we learn to advocate alongside them.  The support in their community is really beautiful. So to get updates on upcoming events, you can of course follow me on social media at @allaboutaudiologypodcast on Instagram, and on Facebook in our parenting Facebook group, as well as joining the mailing list which is a surefire way to hear about updates and new upcoming episodes.  Okay, enough of that. I would love to introduce today’s guest, Dr. Karen Muñoz, is the department head and professor of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education at Utah State University. She is an audiologist of many years, as well as a researcher and I really am so glad that we’ve connected, and that she is coming on the show to talk about the parent-centered and patient-centered approach, person-centered approach. I mean, we all know that there are a lot of terms in audiology, about hearing aids and the different parts of the ear and all the different testing that we do and all of our acronyms, ADRs and OEEs, and all the different things that can become really mumble jumbled and… what are we even talking about at the end of the day and beginning of the day, we have to be really focused on the people the actual child or patient family in front of us. And I really love that that is her focus because that is something that I’m so passionate about and I want to learn more about the researchers who are doing so much incredible work in this field. So without further ado, I present the conversation that I had with Dr. Karen Muñoz. And of course, there will be full show notes and links to everything we talked about at allaboutaudiology.com. Thanks for listening, here we go! Welcome, Dr. Karen Muñoz! To the All About Audiology podcast. It’s so wonderful to have you here. And I would love to start by having you introduce yourself and tell our listeners who you are.  Dr. Karen Muñoz: Well, thank you for inviting me. It’s nice to be here with you and to meet you. I’m an audiologist. I work in Utah I’ve got a varied history. I started audiology as a clinical practitioner, many many years ago, and then transitioned more into teaching research and now administration, so I’m at Utah State University currently. LS: And it’s so interesting that you have that trajectory. We definitely have a lot of students listening to this show, communication disorder students from around the world, and lots of times they are looking at their options, “what my career is going to look like?” And I always encourage people that, even if you choose something, that doesn’t mean that’s your life forever. There’s so many options and opportunities.  So you started clinical what made you interested in moving into research in academics? KM: That’s such a great question, and people ask me that a lot, you know, because it’s such a little bit of an unusual path. And, you know, I really enjoyed working in the clinic and as I worked… I worked clinically for about 20 years, and during that time, I ended up focusing more on pediatrics as I went along. But when I got my degree, it was a master’s degree, and then the AUD came along. So it’s honestly that, that prompted me to look at this because I thought “Well, should I go back and get my AUD or, you know, what, what do I want to do?” And at that point in time, somebody had suggested to me that I look at a research degree. So it wasn’t any grand plan that I ever had along the way. It was an opportunity that showed up and I happen to work at a university at the time Supervising graduate students, you know, in the clinic, so I worked with students for a long time, I loved working in the university and the department chair at that time, when he raised that opportunity, it wasn’t even something that had occurred to me. So I started to look into it and I thought “oh, this is a path that I wouldn’t have thought of”. And what appealed to me about it is that it opened up additional doors. I already knew I liked working clinically. I actually didn’t even have a plan to change what I was doing. I was just going to go back and get the degree and have it enhance, you know, like my clinical work. But it really changed things in a whole lot of ways for me, and that I could never have anticipated and I’ve loved every minute of it. But that’s what prompted me to do it. LS: Would you say that when there’s, I guess, a misconception that people who are in their “ivory tower”, and they’re in university that they’re not actually interacting with patients, but, would you say that that is accurate to your experience with research or…? KM: I would say that it’s not as accurate as people clinically, you know working in so many different settings, think that it is. I have a lot of years working in the university in different capacities and it’s such a focus to say what’s clinically applicable, you know, what is it that’s best practice, clinically applicable, what you really should be going for. Not because it’s extra, but because it’s what comprehensive care looks like. I know that’s been a big part of everything I’ve been exposed to. So my experience is not an out-of-touch “ivory tower” (Laughs) LS: For sure, and I think maybe if anything, you probably think about the clinical care more than a clinician who also is taking on so much of administration and time schedules and cleaning the tips, you know, even they felt like… So of course there’s someone whose entire focus is thinking about creating the evidence-based practice that isn’t practiced. Let’s call it a symbiotic relationship. (Laughs) KM: You know, just thinking about evidence-based practice is such a great, like, foundation for all the different things that we do. And so I do have the fun now of being able to l

    39 min

  6. 07/01/2022

    All About Connecting with Your Whole Child – Episode 90 with Jen Walker

    Read the full transcript here Today Dr. Saperstein speaks with Jen Walker, mother to 7-year-old hard of hearing girl who was internationally adopted. The two discuss the desire to look for ways to create a supportive environment while seeing your whole child. Jen shares parallels with going through the international adoption process and when her daughter was identified as hard-of-hearing. Listen or read the transcript to hear Jen share how and where to look for resources for hard-of-hearing kids, the importance of letting your child have a life of their own, and always looking for ways to connect with them. This week on the All About Audiology podcast: 7:20 – Dealing with international adoption and hearing loss process at the same time, and finding similar situations and difficulties in both process 12:00  – Importance of intersectional identities and not “tagging” kids so that they can grow up as individuals of their own 16:00 – First reaction after finding out about your kid’s hearing loss and the first steps to look for resources 20:10 – Finding the  Connect & Advocate program for the first time and getting involved 25:50 Advocating using the F-I-G Method to balance oversharing and practical advocating.  29:30 – The Connect & Advocate program lets you connect with your child, share with people going through similar experiences, and receive educational and medical advise For more resources and research visit: All About Audiology Website  All About Audiology Facebook group   All About Audiology Instagram And the Prodana pay-it-forward platform here: https://prodana.org/practioner/lilach-saperstein/audiology-counseling–dr–lilach-saperstein Links for Jen’s pages: @teamwalkergonegloball @80sgirlhtx https://teamwalkergoneglobal.wordpress.com Mentioned in this episode: Deaf Utopia Listen Next/Related Episodes Mallorie EvansErin Miller Transcript Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein, and this is the show that is all about you and your journey.  A lot of the audiology journey and having a child who is deaf or hard of hearing revolves around questions and not knowing where to get the answers. So that is what this show is all about. It is, you know, giving you a lot of information, a lot of resources, conversations with lots of different people for you to then go and say: Does this apply to me? If yes, excellent, you learn something that can help you on your way.  So, on today’s episode, I’m so excited to talk to one of my favorite people who is going to introduce herself in a moment, but I just have to say that every single time we hop on a call together, every time that we have communicated and work together, it always makes me so joyous, so I’m really excited to introduce you all, to Jen Walther, welcome, Jen. Jen Walker: Thank you, that’s something to live up to there, no pressure, right? [Laughs] LS: You know, there’s just something that happens in the universe, when two people feel like they have a lot of the same values, and also really align with: I know something that you are looking to know more about, and that is very good for both sides of that equation. [Laughs] Because it gives, you know, part of the journey for the all about audiology, the parenting coaching side of things that I’m doing, the Connect and advocate members group, you know, Jen was one of the first people to join that and really make what I’m doing valid. [Laughs] So that’s really important for my journalism, thank you for that.  Anyway, listen, people want to know who you are, why are you on the show today? So please give us an introduction, a little background. JW: Yeah, sure. Jen Walker, I live in Houston with my husband and my daughter, my daughter is hard of hearing or deaf hard of hearing. We kind of haven’t, I don’t know, aligned on the appropriate label, because she’s still only 7, so she’s just kind of growing into how she wants to be known as.  So, in addition to her being deaf and hard of hearing, she was adopted internationally. So she came home to our house at about two and a half years old. And that was, yeah, five years ago. Wow. Time flies. [Laughs] LS: I think I have just one question on that, that people might wonder, did you have any idea or understanding of her hearing status or being hard of hearing before you met her?  JW: So we are, I think, fairly clueless parents, maybe. Because if you go through the international adoption process you get some information about this child that you’re going to bring into your house and to your family. So the information that we got, we got a medical file and some videos and pictures, and there are doctors in the US that specialize in international adoption files. And so you have like 48 hours to get a doctor to review that file and get back to you from when you have it to make that kind of “yes, we’re all in” decision. So her file, said that her hearing was normal. It had some other special needs listed. But one of the, I remember very clearly, one of the doctors that we talked to, I  actually talked to two, and one of them said, “Well, you know, with this need, sometimes, hearing loss can be an issue. So you should look out for that”. And I noticed on some of her videos that, you know, she doesn’t always respond to the people calling. And like I said, we’re a little bit clueless parents, so we were like, oh, yeah, okay, whatever, sounds her hearing is normal, let’s just… We kind of, almost, blew it off. So, no, we did not know when she came home that she heard differently than we do. And we did not know for probably about a good six months of her being home. And really it was, you know, three or four months, and we were with the pediatrician, and just kind of, you know, general overview updates all that and she was like, “Well, you know, she hasn’t really picked up that much speech since being home, you should maybe get her hearing evaluated, probably not a big deal”.  Even in our like, audiology reports now, it says like “mom said, we don’t really think that she can’t hear”, and every time I read it, I just kind of cringe. Why were we not kind of up on this? So… LS: You also were doing something new. You were dealing with so much that, that wasn’t at all on your radar. So, hurray for the pediatrician, made that referral, and it’s okay that you weren’t concerned because that’s, you know, that’s when it’s like, the professionals are there for you hopefully. JW: Yeah. And, you know, I feel really fortunate because I know a lot of people have to push their doctors for those referrals, and we didn’t have to. Then we did have to wait to get in to see the audiologist. I think that I called in like March or so, and it was June, by the time we finally got the appointment. So, on one hand, also, we were like, well, we don’t really think it’s a problem so we won’t press for it either, we’ll just set it up and see what happens.  But we’ve been, I would say, very, very fortunate to have professionals around us that have pushed for us and advocated for us early on. And that’s, you know, the pediatrician who said, “you should maybe get her hearing checked”, and then when we went to audiology and we did the first sound booth test. I mean, she was three at the time, not interested in a sound booth test, quite frankly right? Not knowing what to do, and at the same time, not being able to hear what was going on, we didn’t know that. So, you know, at the end of the test, the audiologist is like, “well, it’s kind of inconclusive, but we suspect there’s an issue. So we need to get an ABR done right away”. And they scheduled that very, very quickly. So I mean, once we finally got into the audiologist, everything went pretty rapid, actually. So like a week or two later ABR. And at the ABR, they said, “Yep, she needs hearing aids. Let’s do the earmolds”, right then.  So, within a month really of our first appointment, I think we had the hearing aids and they were on her ears. LS: What was that like? Like, were you able to accept that? Understand what it meant? Or were you just sort of following where they were taking you? How were you feeling at that time? JW: It was very much a whirlwind of information, you know, drinking from a firehose is the [Lilach laughs] appropriate statement there, right? And, you know, in this age of social media, like the first thing you do is like, Facebook group and Instagram or whatever your kind of thing is. Find out, okay, what are the resources? And you know, there wasn’t much discussion in terms of like, language preference, sort of language path, or any of that, right communication pathways, it was very much like, okay, she has hearing loss, we’re going to order the hearing aids today kind of thing. And you’re gonna go from there, and you need to get into speech therapy. And, you know, there was never any, “oh, well, you should consider doing sign language, or you could consider like these other alternatives”. It was very much just like, “here’s your path, done!” I mean, the nice thing was that it was, “here’s your path, go down it fast, right? Don’t wait”. And things got set up quickly. But at the same time, there wasn’t a lot of reflection for “what’s the right thing for us?” maybe, just the best way to say that.  LS: Yeah, and I think that for, you know, telling me if I’m putting words in your mouth, but for your situation, specifically, you were already dealing with a lot of questions of identity formation and inclusion in the family on a much bigger scale in the adoption journey. And then to get this whole additi

    37 min

  7. 06/28/2022

    All About A Hearing Aid Lending Program – Episode 89 

    Read the full transcript here On episode 89 of the All About Audiology podcast, Dr. Lilach Saperstein speaks with audiologist Batya Jacob. Batya is an audiologist by profession and also is the founder of a free hearing aid lending program. When Batya shares the origin story behind the program, when her son needed to get hearing aids, she realized that medical insurance in general doesn’t cover hearing aids and that they are quite expensive. She now supports those who are Deaf or HoH with organizing a free lending program. This program is open to the global community and anyone can benefit from it; even you! Contact batyaj@ou.org for more information.  This week on the All About Audiology podcast:    7:00 –  Since hearing aids are expensive, parents may want to put money aside in a special place for the future’s sake. 8:00 – Most medical insurance companies do not cover the cost of hearing aids 10:40 -If a hard of hearing child is prescribed the use of hearing aids, it’s important that they have access to properly fit hearing aids as soon as possible 21:00 – The earlier young individuals learn about inclusion, the more likely they will be attuned to equitable access as an adult, employer, etc. 25:00 – It is so powerful when a community promotes a sense of collective sharing in order to take care of each other! 29:00 – Give your child the proper time and attention that they deserve in order for them to reach their full potential. For more resources and research visit: All About Audiology Website  All About Audiology Facebook group   All About Audiology Instagram And the Prodana pay-it-forward platform here: https://prodana.org/practioner/lilach-saperstein/audiology-counseling–dr–lilach-saperstein (Guest Links) Mentioned in this episode: Yachad Listen Next/Related Episodes All About Equipment- Episode 33 with Dr. Julie RenshawAll About Innovations In Hearing Aids – Episode 76 – with Dr. Jodi Saski-MiragliaAll About The Stigma and Benefits of Hearing Aids – Episode 77 with Dr. Brian Taylor Transcript All About Audiology Transcription Dr. Batya Jacobs: I work for Yachad. But I’m an audiologist, I understand how hearing aids work, I understand how hearing loss works, we could create a system where we collect used hearing aids from people because they’ve got new hearing aids because they’re not using them for whatever reason, because unfortunately, somebody has passed away… Let’s collect those hearing aids. Let’s work with audiologists and hearing aid dealers in different parts of the country, and it’s spreading around the world a little bit now, where we can offer to people, a free lending program, where people can send us their audiograms, their hearing loss table, and we can match as close as possible the hearing aids we have in our stock to their hearing loss. Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein. And on this show, we talk about so many different aspects of audiology and your experience with the field of audiology. Because there is so much that goes with it. It’s not just for testing and maybe getting devices, but it’s a much bigger experience of how this affects your life, your child’s life, someone that you love. So we are always talking about the different elements of having someone in your life who is deaf or hard of hearing, especially a child. Or if that is your experience. In addition, the professionals that are working with this wonderful population, we have SLPs, and audiologists, and teachers, joining and tuning into the podcast. So thank you all for being supporters of the All About Audiology Podcast. Today on the show, we’re talking about the price of hearing aids and the prohibitive access to devices when you need them and cannot get access to them. Well, what are you to do? There are so many incredible people lobbying, and working with insurance, and trying to change laws to make it that these very expensive devices can be accessible to more and more people. But there is someone doing something very unique… So I’m excited to introduce you to Batya Jacob, an audiologist in New Jersey, who is going to be telling us about free lending society and other things. So welcome Batya to the show.  BJ: Thank you for having me. Such a pleasure to meet you and to be here.  LS: Thanks. I love talking. That’s number one. But also love learning about what is going on underground. As this is an issue a lot of people have. We hear it from everybody. So so expensive, 1000s of dollars expensive to get a pair of hearing aids, I mean, even just one. And in early intervention, things are covered. If you have really good insurance, things may be covered. And of course, this is also different in many different parts of the world. A lot of different countries have different ways that they set it up. So I’m curious to hear how you got into this. But before that, I am interested in your background and how you even got into audiology.  BJ: I think it started when I was a little kid. I read a lot of books about Helen Keller, and I got very motivated by her life. So I decided that I wanted to work with this deaf and hard-of-hearing population and coming from a world of… my father was a pediatrician, and so I have this medical model in my head, I decided I wanted to go into audiology. I was a student in speech and hearing at Boston University’s. [It was a] different century. I then met my husband who has a deaf brother, you know, God leads you in different ways. We decided to get married, I kind of became the, in some way, the sign language interpreter of the family, certainly at all religious celebrations of the family because nobody really in that family knew sign language and he was communicating with sign language.  LS: And at what point did you learn sign language? BJ: I decided to take a sign language class in college because I said if half the people who are coming to me communicate by sign language, I need to be able to communicate with them. Whether I wanted my clients to be able to speak or sign I needed them to communicate and how am I going to be able to communicate with people if they’re only coming in signing? LS: Wow. This has to be a whole other episode.(Laughs) BJ: A whole other conversation about communication, which is really truly a whole different discussion. And I’m not an interpreter in any way, trust me. So I became this like, kind of in lieu of a real sign language interpreter, it was me. My husband and I got married, we had three children and then we had a set of twins, and the twins: girl and boy are at birth. Probably two hours later I turned to my husband, I said I can’t tell you our daughter hears I know our son is hearing less than cheese… and everybody said to me, you’re crazy, you are this hyper-crazy parent, why are you putting problems where they aren’t?. This was before universal screening of babies. The twins are now 32 and a half. They didn’t want to test him in the hospital, they said I was absolutely out of my mind. They made every excuse possible. And I was so sure he could not hear the same as his twin sister. I was trained to look at babies and listen to them hear [and] see what they were doing. I literally bundled the two babies up. Took them up to my graduate school program at the University of Connecticut to my professors. And sure enough, my daughter’s hearing was normal. And my son had a severe to profound hearing loss. LS: You were able to see that so soon after birth. BJ: Literally, I tell you, within hours of his birth. It was so clear that the phone would ring that she would stop nursing and he would just keep nursing. We had hearing aids on him by the time he was five weeks old, to a point where we would tape the ear molds into his ears because they were so tiny.  LS: Yeah.  BJ: And I was called aggressive. I was accused of making my baby look like an old man. LS: Wow! BJ: You wanted stories, right? (Laughs) Anything you can imagine, but we were determined that he was going to communicate with whatever modality he could. And he was on early intervention by the time he was six weeks old. He now lives in Israel. He is an accountant. He is married with three hearing children. If you met him, you would think he had Bluetooth in his ears, you wouldn’t even realize necessarily from his speech that he doesn’t hear. COVID was very hard with masks, I must tell you. And as parents, realizing that hearing aids were going to be a lifetime investment for him, we put money aside when he was born. So that he would have this foothold, that we would have money, that he would be able to afford hearing aids whenever he needed. But we quickly realized that medical insurance in general doesn’t cover hearing aids. Because in America, at least the way the government has written the law. Hearing aids are categorized as optional prosthetic devices. That’s the terminology in the federal government. If they’re optional, they don’t have to be covered. And I work for a program called Yachad, which is an international program that works with individuals with all sorts of disabilities, including developmental disabilities, mobility disabilities, Asperger’s, ADHD, hearing loss, and deafness is one of them. We have had a lobby going on for at least 10 years now, trying to get the word optional to necessary. Because if we can change the word to necessary, then the insurance companies will start to cover the cost of hearing aids. LS: Wouldn’t that be something? BJ: But the lobby blocks for medical insurances are much stronger than we are, unfortunately. I’ve been working for Yachad now for almost 25 years. We have be

    37 min

  8. 05/09/2022

    All About Raising HOH children as a HOH Parent- Episode 88

    Read the transcript here This week on the All About Audiology podcast, Dr. Saperstein interviews Janna Cowper. Janna, who is hard of hearing, also has 2 daughters who are HoH themselves. Janna is the founder of Hardofhearingmama.com. She shares her own story as well as education posts on Instagram. Currently, Janna is studying  at Gallaudet University with the goal of becoming a Deaf Mentor.  This week on the All About Audiology podcast:  3:20 – When one is writing reports for clients/patients, the wording and labeling used in the introduction and summary to describe this child, really matter. 9:00 – When kids see their parents advocating for their needs, they can learn to advocate for themselves too. 12:00 – If accommodations are helping to support a child, do not take those accommodations and such access away. 21:00 – Medical professionals are experts in diagnoses, therapy, and best guidance;  clients are the experts on the actual lived experiences of these diagnoses.  32:00 – Before speaking about milestones and goals, professionals can repeat parents’ requests so that the parents know that they are initially being heard. For more resources and research visit: All About Audiology Website  All About Audiology Facebook group   All About Audiology Instagram And the Prodana pay-it-forward platform here: https://prodana.org/practioner/lilach-saperstein/audiology-counseling–dr–lilach-saperstein Connect with Janna: Janna’s Instagram Page https://hardofhearingmama.com/ Mentioned in this episode: Dr. Michelle Hu @mama who hearsChloe TompkinsGallaudet Universityhttps://hardofhearingmama.com/affiliate-links/ Listen Next/Related Episodes The Ups and Downs of Tara’s Communication Journey – Episode 85All About navigating deaf identity with -Episode 86All About Advocacy Organizations – Episode 59 Transcript: Dr. Lilach Saperstein: Welcome back to the All About Audiology Podcast. I’m your host Dr. Lilach Saperstein, and on this show we talk about all things that are related to your actual experience and your life. Not just about hearing loss, audiograms, and devices, [and there are] so many tips and tricks we can share. But what I love to bring up for us also is this other part of the journey that’s about identity, and advocacy, and connection, and communication, [and] the stuff that actually matters, like how to talk to our kids and how to make them feel like they’re super amazing, important, confident. And also that we should feel that way as parents in general and as professionals as well. Today on the show, I’m so excited to be joined by Janna Cowper – hard of hearing mama. You for sure know her on Instagram or from hardofhearingmama.com. [She has] so many amazing posts and conversations, and I just love being in your sphere and seeing what you’re creating. So I’m really excited to dive in. Welcome, Janna to the show. Janna Cowper:   Thank you so much. I’m really excited to be here. LS: So you, yourself are hard of hearing and you also have children who are in this same experience. So I’d love to hear how your experience growing up is different than what you’re providing for them. I think that contrast would be an interesting thing to go back [to reflect on]. Also looking into the history, how things have changed over time, but also will be hugely valuable to our audience. And as we all know, the majority of hard-of-hearing children and deaf children are born to hearing parents who don’t have any experience or understanding (certainly not personal experience for the most part). So I think it’ll be fascinating to hear, take it away. JC: That is a loaded question. There’s a lot in there. So I’m going to try and break it down. And I’ll just talk about some key differences between when I grew up and the age my children are growing up in. We are in different times of life, the world, centuries, the way stigmatas are seen are different, the way hearing loss and deafness is looked at is different. [And] even if there’s a lot that hasn’t changed, there’s a lot that has. And that includes technology and that includes awareness and education. And one of the key differences is just simply who you’re surrounded by. My hearing loss is hereditary; it’s on my mother’s side of my family. And it gets passed down. If I hadn’t passed it down, it would never be packed down. But if I do pass it down, my kid can potentially pass it down.  I grew up in a time where, in my family chain, they were never really heard of a Deaf community. So there was always someone in the family with a hearing loss and so their view is [that] you need to blend in. You need to be like everybody else; wear your hair down [and] cover your hearing aids because you don’t want people to see it. You don’t want people to know [you have hearing aids]. So this was ingrained in me as a child. Now for my children growing up [I instill in them that] you are hard-of-hearing, you are deaf. This is who you are and that cannot change. You don’t need to hide it. Be proud of who you are: wear your hair up, decorate your hearing aids, get beautiful colored ear molds or spunky colored ear molds, however you want to refer to them, [and] celebrate it. And those are just two different narratives being formed in the way we’re growing up. Now I’m not saying what my parents did was wrong. That’s what they were taught. And I just happened to grow up in a way where I learned things. LS: This brings up for me the concept of identity first or person first. I actually recently taught this to my students in their oral rehab university level class. And the assignment was [to] go research these two approaches and tell me what you think. [And I asked them to answer:] what’s your opinion of which one is correct. And of course the answer at the end is context dependent. It’s case by case and there isn’t necessarily a right one. It really depends on so many factors. But the idea in short of identity first: is saying that I am hard-of-hearing or I am deaf  and person first: is saying I am a person who is hard of hearing or I’m a person with hearing loss. This whole linguistic semantic way of getting very nitty gritty with the way people describe themselves, the way professionals talk about you and about your child. It’s very loaded, and it will change over time. So I think something you’re describing is sort of within that debate. JC: I mean, it’s interesting to look at it that way. I have to confess as someone who has grown up being hard-of-hearing, or deaf, or with hearing loss or however  LS: Right, you start tripping up. You don’t know what to say. JC: Well, I guess if I’m being honest, I’ve never thought about the way I identify myself as identity first or person first. I know what you’re talking about. I know the concept of it, and maybe I should think about it more, but I guess I’ve never thought about it that way. I am deaf and I am a person who is hard-of-hearing. They both for me are applicable. And so I haven’t given a lot of thought to the argument, and for my family personally, about whether it’s person first or identity first. LS: And I actually think that’s one of the major sensitive points/issues that people focus on that, like what is the wording, and start having fights and [then there are] Facebook threads that go on and on and on of people arguing about what words we are using and how we should approach this. *sighs* And I really think there’s a lot of grace in both directions. [And] that it doesn’t necessarily matter the exact wording and it might change. It probably will change over time. JC: I think you said two true things. It probably will change over time. And you said just a few minutes ago that it really depends on the individual and their preferences. LS: Yeah, we were talking about when you’re writing reports for your clients/for your patients, what wording you use in the introduction and summary to describe this child really matters. It comes with them. These labels are important because they matter for what services they’ll have and how they’re seen. But I really want to always bring in the human side so I’m very grateful to hear that for you it doesn’t really matter. It’s not the point. So tell us a little bit more about when you were growing up. So this [condition] was in your family. It was part of the experience that was familiar to the people around you. Tell us more about that.  JC: Well, when I started talking about my family online, my intent was to talk about being heard of hearing and raising heard of hearing kids and the joy that comes with it [and] the activities we can do together [and] how we work on speech and language. And that was the intent. And once in a while, I’ll throw in stories about when I grew up and my access at school. And suddenly that topic kind of hit home for a lot of parents. Especially hearing parents who kind of wanted to understand what their child might be going through. So I started diving into that a bit more. And what I found in kind of having to think about the way I grew up is I had access in some places, but I didn’t have a lot of access. There was not a lot known about education. And as a child, you’re not thinking about your access. I can look back at it and say, ‘oh, clearly I did not have access.’ But as a child, you’re not thinking that. As a child, you’re in school, you want to go home, you want to watch TV and you want to have your snack. But when I talk about access to school I’m talking about things like I had an FM system. That is access, but technology has changed. Back then, in the 1980s specifically, FM technology is not what it is today. So for me it wasn’t really access

    34 min
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