It’s important that children with hearing loss and their families have outside support. The University Of Michigan Department Of Otolaryngology developed Sound Support to assist children, families, educators and professionals throughout the state of Michigan. The Sound Support team is comprised of audiologists and auditory-verbal therapists/speech-language pathologists. It is our mission to coordinate a multi-modal approach to hearing health care for children who have been diagnosed with hearing loss.
Supporting Families
Sound Support can assist families by:
- Providing education and information about hearing loss.
- Connecting families to local educational services and Children’s Special Health Care Services (CSHCS).
- Working with families and educators to facilitate classroom accommodations, such as FM systems or real-time captioning.
- Conducting school visits to discuss a student’s progress and individual needs with teachers and other school staff.
- Providing networking opportunities with families of children who are deaf/hard of hearing.
- Providing information about parent groups such as AG Bell, Guide-By-Your-Side and Michigan Hands and Voices.
Supporting Educators
Sound Support works closely with educators who work with children who are deaf/hard of hearing to maximize the child’s use of spoken language. Sound Support offers the following services for educators:
- In-Service Training and Workshops provide updated information to educators and school personnel on a variety of topics:
- Troubleshooting and management of Cochlear Implants and Hearing Aids and other Assistive Devices
- Auditory-Verbal Therapy
- Mainstreaming/Inclusion
- School Visits offer information regarding a specific child. An observation of the child in the educational setting is followed by consultation with the staff to discuss the child’s progress and/or specific needs.
Supporting Professionals
A child with hearing loss is best served by a community of professionals. Each professional plays a vital role in helping a child reach their full potential. Sound Support provides lectures, in-services, mentorship and other outreach to a variety of professionals:
- Sound Support works to increase awareness of hearing loss and the importance of early referral amongst the medical community through presentations at local, regional and state professional meetings.
- Roundtable discussions allow audiologists, speech pathologists, teacher consultants and other professionals an opportunity to network, collaborate and share information.
- Lectures regarding intervention techniques and advances in technology provide undergraduate, graduate and medical students across the state with valuable information.
- The Sound Support Mentorship Program aims to improve understanding of the effects of hearing loss on early development and to provide an opportunity for individualized training for professionals who provide diagnostic and rehabilitative services to children with hearing loss throughout the state of Michigan.
Sound Support Funding
Late identification and intervention of hearing loss can result in significant delays in speech, language, social and academic skills. Michigan Medicaid and the University Of Michigan Department Of Otolaryngology seek to minimize these delays in children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Sound Support is generously funded via a matching grant between Michigan Medicaid and the University Of Michigan Department Of Otolaryngology.
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Contact us at 734-998-8119 or by e-mail: [email protected]