Triad Hitchup

Friday, September 28, 2007

Triad HITCH-UP Meeting Highlights 9/25/07

Guest Speaker: Patricia Roush, AuD, Dept. of Otolaryngology
University of North Carolina School of Medicine

This week Pat Roush graciously joined us to share a glimpse of her
uncommon pediatric audiologic expertise. We had a wonderful, informal
discussion; it is hard to recount all we talked about! Here are some of the
discussion points: Pat began by reviewing the genetics of hearing loss,
referring to a lecture given by Walter
Nance at a recent Audiology meeting. Of hearing impaired children of
hearing parents, 55% have a genetic etiology, and, of these, 25% are caused by
mutations in the Conexin 26 gene. There are upwards of 100 other known genetic
mutations that make up the remaining genetic cases. Among cases of congential
hearing loss, 50% are syndromic and 50% are non-syndromic. Prenatal CMV is
another common cause of congenital hearing loss. Pat also discussed
the audiogram, including degrees of hearing loss, complexities of the
audiogram, and the effects of various types of loss on speech
development. Finally, she briefly discussed appropriate use of
cochlear implants, such as at what point children are candidates, and how the
processing is different for each child.

Parents Present:
Leslie Wolfe
Sandy Burnette
Marty and Leigh Reeves
Jenny Ball
Arthur & Tracy Tastet
Loretta & Matthew Slozer
Pam Bensimhon
Chris & Crystal Rierson
Joey and Lisa, UNCG Deaf Ed students

Children Present: (A big thank you to Katherine Breeze and Adam
Bensimhon)
Collin and Hannah Tastet
Eli, Zack, Allie and Jake Bensimhon
The Slozer quads and McKenna
Angeleah Reeves

Thanks to Leigh and Marty Reeves for bringing refreshments for the
parents and children to this week’s meeting. Pamela Bensimhon is
signed up to bring snacks to the next meeting.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, October 30, 2007. Our speaker will
be Beth Whitfield, M. Ed, Certified AVT, CASTLE Program Coordinator.
We hope that all can attend.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Don't forget our FALL FESTIVAL will be Saturday, Oct.
20 from 4-7pm @ Fourth of July Park in Kernersville in Shelter #3.
Located at 702 W. Mountain Street. We will be celebrating the fall
with pumpkin painting and a cookout. Please RSVP to Crystal at
crierson24@triad.rr.com or 449-9948. THIS IS A LOCATION CHANGE FROM OUR
PREVIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT

Pam Bensimhon, Crystal Rierson, Rhonda Shronts
Co-leaders, Triad Area HITCH-UP




Thursday, September 20, 2007

Triad HITCH-UP Meeting Highlights 7/31/07

Presentation: Language and Reading: How Does it all connect?
Guest Speaker: Sharon Moore, CED, Cert AVT, NBCT

Resources Support Program

Sharon Moore discussed normal auditory development, from birth through preschool age. She discussed 4 major areas in which all hearing impaired children should be evaluated and supported:

1) Speech and articulation

2) Vocabulary (expressive and receptive)

3) Language structure (ie sentence structure, tense, etc), expressive and receptive.

4) Auditory comprehension

All of these are key areas for the development of normal language and for optimal literacy. Vocabulary is a key area which can be supported by extensive reading exposure. The vocabulary in books tends to be more complex than that that we use in everyday speech. Vocabulary should include verbs, adjectives, prepositions, nouns, etc. Expressive language should include first words by 1 year, 20-100 by 18 months, 300 by 2 years (and this should include words of all types, including prepositions, etc), 900 by 3 years, 1500 by 4 years, and 2500 by 5 years. For higher education, a vocabulary of 100,000 words is required. Sharon Moore emphasizes that you cannot read what you cannot speak; complex vocabulary and reading structure/ language are required for real reading. There area 5 key areas in teaching people to read:

1) Phonemic awareness

2) Phonics

3) Fluency

4) Vocabulary

5) Text comprehension

Many hearing impaired children who were previously managing, fall off in 4th grade because they do not know phonics. At this point, they are meant to read to learn, and therefore pick up new words as read along, and they cannot keep up with this.

Sharon gave many helpful recommendations. Among them were the following:

1) Read 10 books/ day with your child to stimulate vocabulary

2) Even if your child can read, still read to him just above his level to continue to teach new vocabulary.

3) Do an activity, take pictures, and then put together your own books (for younger children), so that they can tell and re-tell the story. Include high frequency words. Cooking is a good thing to do this with, for example.

4) Children should be tested using STANDARDIZED TESTING in ALL of the following areas mentioned near the top of the page.

5) She and her cohorts are available to provide this testing free of charge to all children in the public system, but her services must be requested by the school (ECA director)

6) Children should have 1 hour a day of intensive language therapy for each year that they are delayed.

Parents Present:
Leslie Wolfe (and sister in law!)

Jenny Ball

Arthur & Tracy Tastet
Loretta & Matthew Slozer

Pam Bensimhon
Rhonda Shronts
Chris & Crystal Rierson

Children Present: (A big thank you to Bizi Kidz!!!!!)
Collin and Hannah Tastet
Eli and Zack Bensimhon

The Slozer quads and McKenna

Thanks to Loretta and Matthew Slozer for bringing the snacks for children and adults to the meeting. Leigh and Marty Reeves are signed up to bring snacks to the next meeting.


Our next meeting will be Tuesday, September 25, 2007. Our speaker will be Pat Roush, AuD, from UNC Chapel Hill. It is always productive to talk to Pat! We hope that all can attend.

Pam Bensimhon, Crystal Rierson, Rhonda Shronts
Co-leaders, Triad Area HITCH-UP

Monday, September 17, 2007

Making the Connections: A Conference About Childhood Hearing Loss

October 5 and 6, 2007
At the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center
Greensboro, North Carolina

The agenda is now posted at www.sph.unc.edu/oce.

Designed for families and service providers working with early hearing screening or children with hearing loss.

North Carolina Institute for Public Health
Office of Continuing Education
 

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