(Keynote Presentation) 

Amy Lederberg
Georgia State University (United States)

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(45-minute presentation)

Sarah Radlinski, Sarah Spencer
Auditory-Verbal Center, Inc. (United States)

This session will navigate popular modern parenting philosophies, such as Montessori and RIE, through a listening and spoken language (LSL) framework. Participants will explore what may conflict with LSL principles, while also discovering strengths of each philosophy to apply to intervention. Respect for parenting preferences is encouraged while also aligning with current LSL research.

During this session, participants will:

• Effectively counsel families on how to uphold the principles of their chosen parenting philosophy, while still integrating LSL strategies and providing the communication opportunities their deaf and hard of hearing child needs to thrive with spoken language.
• Gain a deeper understanding of the intent behind each targeted parenting philosophy’s core beliefs.
• Recognize the areas within each philosophy that seemingly conflict with LSL principles, and discuss how each parenting philosophy can still coexist with LSL intervention, given some adaptation.

(45-minute presentation)

Sarah Radlinski, Sarah Spencer, Sarah Hudgins
Auditory-Verbal Center, Inc. (United States)

Effective behavior management extends beyond simply eliciting cooperation during listening and spoken language intervention sessions and is critical to a child’s overall social-emotional development. This session will identify the neurodevelopmental etiology behind behaviors, such as tantrums, that are viewed as undesirable. The most impactful positive discipline strategies for long-term success will be explored.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe the neurodevelopmental source of behaviors such as tantrums and explain why behavior problems may be more prevalent in deaf and hard of hearing children.
• Identify why some traditional behavior management strategies (time out, ignoring, bribes, threats etc.) are ineffective long-term.
• Describe alternative behavior management strategies following positive discipline principles that are both practical and actionable during listening and spoken language intervention.

Betsy Moog Brooks, Amanda Rudge
Moog Center for Deaf Education (United States)

This presentation will report on the perspectives of real-time embedded coaching as an approach to early intervention as reported by early intervention providers and caregivers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Findings will include: establishing relationships/rapport, developing mutual respect/trust, increasing caregiver confidence, and implementing real-time embedded coaching.

During this session, participants will:

• List key elements for implementing real-time embedded coaching.
• Describe the components of real-time embedded coaching.
• Describe the aspects of the coach-coachee relationship which are significant to increasing caregiver confidence.

Ashley Garber
LSL Learning Partners, LLC (United States)

Becky Clem
Cook Children’s Medical Center (United States)

Listening and spoken language practice has long involved mentoring of professionals seeking certification. The speakers make the case for a shift toward strengths-based coaching (SBC). Using SBC, we see changes in clinician behavior that directly impact intervention practice, thus the child’s spoken language outcomes. Speakers will use videos and scenarios to demonstrate coaching strategies.

During this session, participants will:

• Evaluate core strengths-based coaching concepts that impact clinicians’ use of listening and spoken language strategies in intervention sessions.
• Script a coaching conversation based on a scenario using strength-based coaching strategies.
• Compare changes in clinician behavior in listening and spoken language intervention sessions pre- and post-coaching.

A Genetic Cause of Auditory Neuropathy

Tera Quigley
Decibel Therapeutics (United States)

Several companies are developing novel treatments for individuals with specific forms of hearing loss, including auditory neuropathy caused by otoferlin protein deficiency. The Amplify™ genetic testing program is one of the sponsored, no-charge genetic testing for children with auditory neuropathy. Find out more about eligibility for this program here: https://www.invitae.com/en/amplify.

During this session, participants will:

• Understand several companies are developing novel treatments for individuals with auditory neuropathy caused by otoferlin (OTOF) protein deficiency.
• Explain that genetic testing must be completed to determine if OTOF protein deficiency is the cause of an auditory neuropathy diagnosis.
• Identify and access a sponsored, no-cost genetic testing service for children with auditory neuropathy.

LSL When the Prognosis is Unknown

Ellen Thomas, Gabrielle Watson
University of Michigan (United States)

Experienced listening and spoken language (LSL) practitioners routinely provide prognoses regarding LSL outcomes. This talk uses two cases of a rare genetic disorder to look at the management of the LSL journey when etiology makes for an unchartered LSL path.

During this session, participants will:

• Explain why ongoing diagnostic intervention is critical.
• Recognize when the typical intervention path won’t work.
• Identify two objective that can help monitor LSL practice when the outcome is not as expected.

Technologies, Parents and Therapists: All Together

Cilmara Levy
ISCMPS (Brazil)

As multiplier agents, teachers need to build a base with speech-therapist students, as they will be the closest therapists who will mentor parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe the support needs and practical activities for undergraduate students in speech therapy.
• List the benefits of student training for clinical practice.
• Define the main principles of hearing and language stimulation.

Japanese Monosyllabic Errors with HA and CI

Shujiro Minami
National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center (Japan)

To reframe the criteria for pediatric cochlear implants (CIs) in Japan, we investigated monosyllabic recognition errors at the time of school entry in deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) children with hearing aids (HAs) or CIs in early childhood

During this session, participants will:

• Describe the commonalities and differences between children with HAs and children with CIs.
• Identify the similar articulation style.
• Identify formant transition as the causes of the recognition errors.

Impact of Family Participation on Language Development

Amy Cantu, Kelsey McKey
Texas Hearing Institute (United States)

Ronald Vilela
Texas Children’s Hospital (United States)

Austin Huang
Baylor College of Medicine (United States)

Parent participation is a vital factor that affects patient outcomes in listening and spoken language (LSL). Family involvement was described using the Family Participation Rating Scale and compared to patients’ progress over time. Data points between 2017 and 2021 will be presented and factors that affect parent participation will be reviewed.

During this session, participants will:

• Understand the importance of parent participation in language progress and overall outcomes of children enrolled in LSL services.
• Identify specific areas of family support that may lead to successful language outcomes in children with hearing loss.
• Learn measures of family participation that can be implemented in their clinic.

Benefits of Parent Panel and Patient Navigator

Ashley Milinichik, Daniel King
Duke University Hospital (United States)

The success of a comprehensive, family-centered pediatric hearing program requires a multidisciplinary team. This session will provide details about how patient navigator(s) and parent panel members (families of children with hearing loss) can be included within multidisciplinary teams to help improve patient outcomes and patient satisfaction.

During this session, participants will:

• Understand the role of the patient navigator in a pediatric hearing program.
• Understand the importance of parent/patient input into program development.
• Identify keys to co-working with families and teams via parent panel and patient navigator.

PEACH: Nueva herramienta en español                          

(Presented in Spanish)

Sofia Bravo Torres
Hospital Dr. Luis Calvo Mackenna (Chile)

This session provides an overview of Parental Assessment Scale of Children’s Auditory/Oral Performance (PEACH), a tool validated in Spanish.

During this session, participants will:

• Increase knowledge of questionnaire adaptation.
• Learn about a transversal tool to evaluate children with hearing loss.
• Promote the importance of cultural adaptation of listening skills tests.

EI for Mild, Moderate and Unilateral HL

Gillian Lalonde
Lumenus Community Services/Toronto Infant Hearing Program (Canada)

Maria Emilia (Mila) de Melo
Toronto Public Health/Toronto Infant Hearing Program (Canada)

The Virtual “Hear” 2 Talk program is a family-centered service for children with unilateral or bilateral mild/moderate permanent hearing loss in the better ear. It promotes collaborative practice among all members of the child’s team, increases parental self-efficacy skills, and meets the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention 1-3-6 benchmarks.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe a family-centered, virtual EI program for children identified with unilateral or bilateral mild/moderate permanent hearing loss and whose parents have chosen spoken language outcomes.
• Summarize parents’ perspectives following participation in a virtual early intervention service.
• Examine the impact of an early intervention program on parental self-efficacy.

Birth to Three Outcomes in LSL Grant

Emily Robbins
Norton Children’s ENT and Audiology (United States)

This presentation analyzes data collected on children ages birth to three with identified hearing loss receiving listening and spoken language intervention via telehealth. Families received coaching from a speech-language pathologist and/or developmental interventionist. Data was collected upon initial evaluation and tracked monthly over 1.5 years.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe data collection tools used to track progress.
• Identify key outcome differences between unilateral and bilateral users.
• Identify the relationship between wear-time and outcomes.

Overcoming Remoteness in Early Intervention Service Delivery

Carolyn Hawrish
BC Family Hearing Resource Society (Canada)

Effectively delivering services in remote areas remains a challenge for early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) programs. We examine a case study of innovative collaboration between two agencies to provide excellent EHDI services in the Yukon, a remote Canadian territory. This partnership is helping to ensure access to appropriate intervention even in extremely remote areas.

During this session, participants will:

• Understand the challenges to EHDI program service delivery in extremely remote areas.
• Identify the ways in which two early intervention programs established a partnership to provide specialized service to extremely remote DHH clients.
• Identify key elements that are enabling these two early intervention partners to foster their collaborations and diversify the practices they are using in their service delivery.

Project VOICE Vocational Education and SLP Training

Isabel Costa
University of Aveiro (Portugal)

The education of speech-language pathologists (SLP) and other professionals working with families is crucial to reach spoken language through listening. This translational project aims to raise the bar on Romenian SLP education and parental participation with children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

During this session, participants will:

• Learn about listening for spoken language.
• How to do provide educational training.
• How to improve parental involvement.

Preschool Children’s Vocabulary during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ronda Rufsvold
OPTION Schools (United States)

Mona Oster
Listen and Talk (United States)

Jennifer Coto, Ivette Cejas
University of Miami (United States)

Similar to the rest of the country, OPTION programs transitioned in the Spring 2020 to emergency tele-intervention services. The aim of this study was to evaluate the vocabulary growth of preschool-aged children who are DHH enrolled in OPTION programs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic given the transition to tele-intervention services.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe the vocabulary growth of preschool-aged children who are DHH who attended specialized programs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Summarize how the results inform practices for practitioners working with children who are DHH who are utilizing listening and spoken language.
• Identify the profiles of children who maintained or showed growth in their vocabulary scores during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preschooler’s DM Benefit in Adverse Listening Situations       

Monika-Maria Oster
Listen and Talk (United States)

Children ages 3 to 5 years old with hearing loss benefit from DM technology when listening to quiet and conversational speech in noise and through zoom.

During this session, participants will:

• Identify adverse listening situations that preschoolers encounter.
• Participants will describe the benefit preschoolers gain from the DM system in different adverse listening situations.
• Participants will identify limitations to the data presented.

Beneficio de Rehabilitación Auditiva en adulta poslocutiva

(Presented in Spanish)

Elba Roxana Figueroa Núñez del Prado, Yovana Fajardo Chumpitaz
Centro Fonoaudiológico y de Aprendizaje FON-AP (Peru)

This case study is of a 40-year-old post lingual patient with severe-profound bilateral, sudden onset hearing loss. At 8 years of age the patient experienced sudden onset hearing loss without access to speech sounds until 32 years of age when the patient received a unilateral cochlear implant. Hearing access combined with CI and therapy resulted in improved auditory, cognitive, listening comprehension, speech and language skills.

During this session, participants will:

• Learn about the etiology and auditory development of the patient.
• Understand the process of auditory rehabilitation of the patient.
• See evidence that the patient’s auditory rehabilitation has a favorable impact on their quality of life, family, social and work performance.

Consenso profesional para intervenciones interdisciplinarias sustentables

(Present in Spanish)

Gloria Garcia Del Solar, Javiera  Drapela
Facultad de Medicina Clinica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile)

Romina Piccione
MED-EL Latam (Argentina)

Andrea Bravo
MED-EL Latam (Colombia)

This presentation seeks to share with the audience the importance of implementing an informed evidence search that allows users to access opportunities that ensure the promotion, protection and maintenance of interventions that maximize well-being through action guides agreed upon by experts.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe principles of promotion, protection and maintenance of interventions.
• Identify the assessment of the relevance of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures delivered by doctors, audiologists and rehabilitators to the proposals of a clinical guide.
• Discuss the level of agreement established by the specialists regarding the clinical usefulness of the proposed procedures in the pre, peri and post surgical stages.

LSLS Certification Process in a Non-English-Speaking Community    

Bruna Youssef, Marianni Costa Master
Instituto Escuta (Brazil)

Maria Emilia (Mila) de Melo
Toronto Public Health/Toronto Infant Hearing Program (Canada)

The LSLS certification process, although rewarding, is an arduous learning process and can be facilitated if the mentor is fluent in the same language as the candidate and knowledgeable about his/her culture. This poster will describe the LSLS certification journey of professionals in a non-English-speaking community.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe the ongoing LSLS certification journey of professionals in a non-English-speaking community.
• Identify challenges faced by non-English speaking professionals going through the LSLS candidacy process.
• Report creative ways to overcome or minimize the challenges experienced.

(Presented in Spanish)

Gary Morgan

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain)

This talk outlines the current research on theory of mind (ToM) development, the role of communication and language in supporting ToM, and the areas of strengths and difficulties demonstrated in studies of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. The review will cover early research as well as more recent approaches. The talk will finish with some reflections on family intervention and ToM.

During this session, participants will:

• How ToM enables children to understand the world.
• The role of early communication for ToM and language.
• Differences in development in children who are deaf and hard of hearing and possible remediation.

Danielle Lam, Joanna McAdam, Aleisha Davis, Jen Whiteway

The Shepherd Centre (Australia)

Executive function (EF) skills underpin learning, language processing, and social cognition. For children with hearing loss, EF skills play a key role in reaching positive outcomes and are known to be at risk for this population. Preschool years are a key time to develop these skills through play based activities.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe executive function skills.
• Identify barriers to development of executive function in children with hearing loss.
• Use new ideas to strengthen the development of executive function in everyday activities.

Noel Kenely

Auditory Verbal UK (United Kingdom)

Is parent coaching different when delivering sessions in person or via telepractice? Join us to explore the outcomes of a professional development exercise carried out at Auditory Verbal UK to evaluate differences in coaching techniques used during in-person versus telepractice sessions using the Therapist Parent Interaction Coding System.

During this session, participants will:

• Be able to use an objective measure for personal reflection on the use of different parent-coaching techniques.
• Be able to identify potential differences in coaching techniques between in-person and telepractice LSLS sessions.
• Be able to use a framework for personal reflection and/or in mentoring on the use of parent coaching in LSLS sessions.

Melissa Jensen, Logan Horner, Ana Sei

Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children (United States)

Since universal newborn hearing screening, the number of infants diagnosed with unilateral hearing loss has dramatically increased. However, the needs of these children vary. In this session, five profiles of unilateral hearing loss are discussed. They’re based on etiology of hearing loss and the amplification/habilitation that Sunshine Cottage’s Parent-Infant Program has adopted.

During this session, participants will:

• Categorize unilateral hearing loss based on the five profiles presented.
• Identify unique aspects of each profile of unilateral hearing loss and how they impact amplification and therapeutic needs.
• Develop amplification and intervention plans for very young children with unilateral hearing loss based on the profiles presented.

(Presented in Spanish)

Hilda Furmanski

Private Practice (Argentina)

The challenges of a child with hearing loss are not directly perceived or measurable and are often underestimated in mainstream schools. This session attempts to describe the challenges in accessing information and compensatory strategies to improve children’s performance in school.

During this session, participants will:

• Identify the challenges of children with hearing loss in mainstream schools.
• Identify challenges for schools and teachers who have children with hearing loss in their classes.
• Explain possible strategies to promote children’s performance in the school environment.

Jayne Simpson Allen, Shaeez Usman Abdulla

Hear and Say (Australia)

Recent investigations in auditory neuroscience reveal that individuals who are engaged in music training develop brain changes that promote an adaptive auditory system. This session discusses the development of listening and speech perception of two adolescents with profound hearing loss through their discovery of music, beginning with a Spotify playlist!

During this session, participants will:

• Describe the application of music in listening and spoken language sessions with adolescents.
• Explain the relative position of music in the auditory hierarchy.
• Organize a sequential musical list for listening and spoken language intervention.

(Keynote Presentation)

Dathan Rush

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (United States)

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Kristen Temprine

Colonial Intermediate Unit 20, Pennsylvania (United States)

Deanna Magda

Bergen County Special Services School District (United States)

A spotlight on practical applications of the listening and spoken language strategies for the itinerant caseload. The focus will be on integrating auditory skills into the curriculum, and supporting these skills in a flexible manner consistent with itinerant teaching.

During this session, participants will:

• Apply listening and spoken language strategies to a variety of grade levels.
• Integrate listening skills into the curriculum.
• Apply coaching strategies to general education teachers.

Rosemary Gardner

Private Organization (United Kingdom)

Lorraine Murphy

Our New Ears Support Group (United Kingdom)

We examine the link between a ‘theory of mind’ and a ‘growth mindset’, suggesting that combining these two concepts is highly fruitful for our children. We call this a ‘relational growth mindset’, suggesting these concepts in concert help better understanding of oneself and others and develop a growth mindset in interaction with others.

During this session, participants will:

• Understand the concept of relational growth mindset.
• Grasp how this mindset might help guide a child’s interaction with others, recognizing that developing a relational growth mindset can help a child not only build good friendships but also resilience, confidence, and self-belief.
• Put the theory into practice.

(30-minute presentation)

Jane Maddel

Pediatric Audiology Consulting (United States)

The Ling-Madell-Hewitt (LMH) quick test is intended to provide additional information missing from the Ling Six Sound Test. The battery includes the quick test, from detection through repetition, to repetition of all phonemes, through the medial consonant test. Discussion will include interpretation of the test results.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe why the LMH test battery was developed.
• Will be able to perform the LMH quick test and interpret the results.
• Discuss how to proceed with the other components of the LMH test battery.

(30-minute presentation)

Inge Kaltenbrunn, Kylie Chisholm

NextSense (Australia)

The new LMH 10 Sound Test provides increased screening coverage across the low, mid, and high frequencies. This presentation discusses how this test is clinically applied across different age groups, degrees of hearing loss, hearing device users, and languages spoken at home. Recommendations are made to support effective clinical application.

During this session, participants will:

• Understand the LMH 10 Sound Test as a screening tool.
• Describe the advantages and limitations of the test for different age groups, hearing device users, and languages spoken at home.
• Outline factors to consider in test administration and interpretation of results to support effective clinical application.

Jennifer Coto, Chrisandra Sanchez

University of Miami (United States)

This session will discuss the results of a remote CI programing study and implementation of a team-based virtual clinic model. Data on clinical implications and benefits of patient and family outcomes will be reviewed. Current practices and how to implement a similar model in your practice will also be discussed.

During this session, participants will:

• Describe a protocol for remote cochlear implant programming and multidisciplinary team approach to care in a pediatric cochlear implant population.
• Identify the benefits of remote care on family burden and mental health.
• Discuss feasibility and satisfaction for remote programming and multi-disciplinary team care.

Dana Suskind

University of Chicago (United States)

This presentation will discuss the importance of building a parent nation—a society that shares in the responsibility of raising children. Dr. Suskind will make the case that society has abdicated its responsibility to families, adopting policies and norms that directly conflict with the science of early childhood development and make it incredibly challenging for any parent to fulfill their role as their child’s first and most important teacher. The consequences of this abdication are profound and tragic, leading many families to struggle—in ways small and large—and robbing many children of the opportunity to reach their full potential. Never one to stop at identifying a problem, Dr. Suskind also offers a roadmap for mitigating this injustice and building a society that enables parents and caregivers to meet the needs of young children.

During this session, participants will:

• Identify the obstacles facing parents in society at large.
• Identify the ways in which those challenges negatively impact children’s foundational brain development.
• Outline a blueprint for a path forward, using neuroscience to identify the ways in which society can and should support parents.