Book about deafness and hearing loss

Juliet England is publishing a book called Deafness and Hearing Loss: The Essential Guide in the UK. She has had a hearing loss since birth and in a recent BBC article, she says, "It is something that has affected me at various stages of my life, work and studying." Juliet refers to hearing loss as the "invisible disability," which she felt so passionately about helping others better understand. 

The BBC article provides wonderful insight into Juliet's ups and downs of living with her hearing impairment. Her book "gives information on how hearing loss is caused, the things you can do to make life better for you or a close family member, and how to overcome the daily challenges of living with a hearing loss" among other topics including hearing aid technology and strategies for coping with deafness. 

It will be insightful to learn about coping strategies and perspectives from an individual who has organized her experiences in the form of book. Although these topics are taught in my educational program, it is very different to learn from one's first person viewpoint. 

Get your paperback copy at Amazon, available on May 1st.   

via BBC

Universal Newborn Hearing Screenings

Image via Grossman Family West 

The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) in 2000 issued a statement that recommended universal screening for hearing loss before a newborn is discharged from the hospital. The statement also included guidelines for state and hospital programs. Research supports that the earlier a child is identified with hearing loss and intervention is provided, the better the child will be able to develop normal speech and language skills. The ultimate goal is that all infants are identified with hearing loss before 3 months old and receive intervention services initiated by 6 months old. 

The Newborn Hearing Screening typically involves a Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), which objectively measures the brain's response to sound and Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE), which measure emissions from the sensory cells in the cochlea. Here is a good summary comparing the two measures at About.com ABR vs. OAE. 

The California Newborn Hearing Screening Program "helps identify hearing loss in infants and guide families to the appropriate services needed to develop communication skills." Read more about the program on their website. 

It's important to remember that if an infant does not pass their Newborn Hearing Screening, it does not mean that he or she is deaf or has a hearing loss. More testing is necessary to determine if there is a hearing impairment and therefore, further testing will be recommended before hearing status is determined. 

New website - Deafteens.org

A nicely designed website, deaf teens is a new blog where you can share and read stories about hearing impairment, hearing aids, cochlear implants, etc. It provides an opportunity for people to connect with one another through blogging and even chat. There's also a doctor's and parent's corner for commenting.

How the website came to be is an inspirational story of its own. According to the blog Hearing Sparks, David, a teenager with bilateral cochlear implants set out to build a website for an Eagle Scout project. He chronicled the  process on his website: David's Eagle Scout Project. Share your story by emailing him at davidcluff2012@gmail.com 

Here is one particular touching story from the website: “My Story” By JoEllen R., age 18

via Hearing Sparks

Science Daily: Structure of inner-ear protein is key to both hearing and inherited deafness

Thousands of microscopic hair cells located in the cochlea of the inner ear are extremely sensitive structures. Stereocilia are hair-like structures located on the hair cells and tip-links are filaments that connect the stereocilia in bundles. These structures are involved in the depolarization process, which ultimately leads to the excitation of the auditory nerve resulting in physiologic percept of sound.

ScienceDaily.com released an article on April 17, 2010 about new studies from the labs of David Corey, professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and Rachelle Gaudet, associate professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The group performed studies on one of two proteins, cadherin-23, that join to form each tip-link. Their studies show how mutations of the protein can make this otherwise extremely strong protein to weaken in its calcium bonding, resulting in inherited deafness. When weak, stress can cause this bond to "break in billionths of a second."

"Still image from a simulation that "stretches" the two end-most segments of the cadherin-23 protein, much as loud noise might do to its real-life counterpart in the inner ear. Such extreme stress can cause cadherin-23 to break in billionths of a second. (Credit: Marcos Sotomayor)"

Read the awesome article: Structure of inner-ear protein is key to both hearing and inherited deafness

via Science Daily