ANN ARBOR, MI -The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) has chosen to award its first ever Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Hospital Award to the University of Michigan Health System’s childhood hearing program. The U-M Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery is receiving this honor because of its commitment to early screenings and its dedication to providing follow-up services for babies and parents.

Undetected hearing loss can interfere with children’s abilities to learn, and to develop crucial speech and language skills. The importance of diagnosing hearing loss prompted the U-M to launch new efforts to help families in May 2001, which have proven successful and have made U-M a leader in the field.

On March 24, national representatives of the organization and its Michigan representatives, Sid Kraizman and Mark Reeves will present the award locally on behalf of AG Bell in a celebration at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. There will be a national presentation in June at the organization’s biennial 2004 convention in Anaheim, California.

The U-M Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program (EHDI) routinely screens about 3,700 babies for hearing loss annually, and also tests newborns transferred to C.S. Mott Children’s hospital for health reasons. The program, coordinated by Breena Scharrer, M.A., CCC-A, FAAA, provides parents with their babies’ test results and a brochure that explains speech and language development milestones that they should be watching for.

“With support from families, administrators, physicians, nurses, and the great staff members at U-M, our Audiology Department has been successful in implementing and maintaining an Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program that works well and most importantly, helps babies hear and learn...right from the start,” says Scharrer.

Paul Kileny, Ph.D., Director of Audiology for the U-M Health System agrees. “Identifying any problems at an early age gives us the chance to use our skills to help preserve normal milestones of speech and language development, which will hopefully help avoid any delay that the child might have otherwise," he says.

The program’s return rate for follow-up visits far surpasses the criteria set forth by the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing. For parents whose children are diagnosed with hearing loss, U-M’s EHDI program offers a wide range of resources, information, and services—provided by U-M or through referral to public programs. Options include: amplification assessment and fitting; educational programming; audiologic monitoring; a parental support network; cochlear implant evaluation and surgery; and genetics, speech, and language therapy.

The EHDI and CHARM programs received financial support from the Carls Foundation, which provides grants to improve child health in Michigan.

“We applaud the efforts and programs that the University of Michigan EHDI program has put into place,” says K. Todd Houston, Ph.D., executive director and CEO of AG Bell.

According to Scharrer, the Department is grateful to receive the award. "It not only recognizes our program's achievements, but it also helps us spread the word about the importance of early detection, diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss,” she says. “Because hearing loss has such a significant impact on all areas of a child's development, providing the best services possible for our babies identified with hearing loss and their families as early as possible is critical for positive outcomes.”

The award emerged as part of a crusade by Kraizman and Reeves, along with AG Bell staff and other professionals, because of their dedication to promoting early detection in infants. They worked to create guidelines for awarding hospitals whose newborn screening programs were above the rest, in hopes that other hospitals would follow.

“The biggest advance in the education of deaf and hard of hearing children has been the early detection of hearing loss and intervention. U-M has an excellent EHDI program and identifies deaf and hard of hearing babies at two months of age, as well as providing a top to bottom program of intervention and therapy,” says Kraizman.

The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is the world's oldest and largest membership organization promoting the use of spoken language by children and adults with hearing loss. Members include parents of children with hearing loss, adults who are deaf or hard of hearing, educators, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, physicians, and other professionals in related fields.

For more information on EHDI:
http://www.med.umich.edu/childhearinginfo or call 734-764-3486

Listening & speech milestones in children:
(If a child does not reach these, a hearing test is recommended.)

• At birth, babies should awaken or startle to loud sounds, make pleasurable sounds and respond or hush to a caregiver's voice.
• By three months, babies will watch a speaking parent's face, smile when spoken to, and repeat cooing sounds.
• From 4 to 6 months, infants will respond to changes in a parent's tone of voice, look for the source of sounds like dogs barking or doorbells ringing, and babble or use simple sounds
• From 7 to 12 months, toddlers will begin to recognize words for common items, enjoy games like peek-a-boo, and begin to make speech sounds and use one or two words.
• From 1 to 2 years, a child will point to objects by name, follow simple commands like "roll the ball", begin to ask simple questions and use more words each month.
• From 2 to 3 years, children understand differences like "in and out", follow two-part requests like "get the ball and put it on the table," can name most objects and use short sentences.

Risk factors for hearing loss:

• Parent or guardian concern about hearing, speech or language development
• Family history of childhood hearing loss
• Infections the mother had during pregnancy, such as syphilis, herpes and rubella
• Bacterial meningitis
• Misshapen ears, and ear "tags" or "pits", or cleft palate
• Serious infection or illness needing treatment in a neonatal intensive care unit
• Head injury with a skull fracture or loss of consciousness
• Repeated or long-term presence of fluid in the eardrum for at least three months
  

Contact: Lisa Chernikoff

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