2020.10.18
“I want to have better understanding of the educational needs of the group of minimal hearing loss and support their learning process!”
“I want to know the results of the minimal hearing loss service over the past two years. Don’t let the minimal hearing loss keep children from progressing.”
At the Seminar on Minimal Hearing Loss, participants expressed their profound interest of topics related to mild hearing loss.
Children’s Hearing Foundation(CHF) is committed to promoting minimal hearing loss services over three years and has attracted the participation of many medical and educational professionals. The Seminar on Minimal Hearing Loss held on Sunday, October 18, gathered the experience and findings or service providing and research so far, and invited many experts and scholars to share clinical research.
Minimal hearing loss is in no way insignificant
According to foreign research, “Untreated minimal hearing loss will place children at risk for delays in the development of speech and language.” In recent years, the topic of minimal hearing loss has gradually gained attention in domestic and foreign research. The impact of hearing loss on learning speech and language is in no way insignificant, and early intervention is needed to avoid negative impact on the development of children. In order to raise the awareness of the government, parents and professional institutions, the minimal hearing loss service project was officially launched in 2018. Seminars are held every year for cross-professional teams to exchange information and opinion.
With this year’s theme, we will gather CHF’s service experience and research results, share observations and studies in audiology services, education, social services, and invite a number of experts to share their clinical research and practical experience. The list includes: Hung-Ching Lin, Director of the Department of Audiology and Speech language pathology at Mackay Medical College; Dr. Pei-Yu Chen from Mackay Memorial Hospital; Hsiu-Tan Liu, Associate Professor of the Department of Special Education at National Taiwan Normal University; Pao-Hsuan Chou, Audiologist of the Department of Otolaryngology at Kuang Tian General Hospital; Dr. Chen-Chi Wu, Department of Otolaryngology at National Taiwan University Hospital.
On Sunday, October 18th, the Seminar was held at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei. The speakers included the team from the CHF and experts and scholars from different institutions.
(From left) Dr. Pei-Yu Chen of the Mackay Memorial Hospital, Dr. Chen-Chi Wu, Department of Otorhinolaryngology at National Taiwan University Hospital, Hung-Ching Lin, Director of the Department of Audiology and Speech language pathology at Mackay Medical College, Pao-Hsuan Chou, Audiologist of the Department of Otolaryngology at Kuang Tian General Hospital, and Audiologist Ying-Chuan Ma, Social Worker Li-Ching Chen, Oral Engineer Ya-Chu Yu, Researcher Pei-Hua Chen from the Children Hearing Foundation.
Combining efforts of Parents, Teachers& Professionals Helping more children with minimal hearing loss
In the seminar, the audiologist Ying-Chuan Ma of the Children Hearing Foundation shared that the data comparing two years before and after the project. It shows that with the joint efforts of all of the partners, parents’ awareness of minimal hearing loss has increased, and the percentage of proactive consultation has increased significantly. There was also reflection on the current situation of intervention. According to the data, early diagnosis of minimal hearing loss does not necessarily lead to early intervention. In the early stage, most parents still have doubts regarding the use of assistive devices. On the contrary, if the children are diagnosed later which there is already impact on language development, the parents are more likely to be proactive towards intervention. Nonetheless, the data also points out that assistive devices are increasingly available for rentals. By increasing the willingness of parents to use assistive devices rentals, there is an opportunity to help more children with minimal hearing loss.
Regarding the unilateral hearing loss in the minimal hearing loss group, there is often misconception that “you can hear with one ear.” Associate Professor Hsiu-Tan Liu and others have found that unilateral hearing loss also causes effects on learning and interpersonal relationships since there are difficulties in receiving voices, poor concentration, and other problems. Suggested ways to deal with the issue is to raise awareness among teachers and students, promote the use of multimedia equipment and FM system through teaching.
After the seminar, the special education teacher specializing in early treatment said that he has gained a lot. “Now I understand that minimal hearing loss does not only require professionals, but the mindset of parents is even more important. In the future, besides adjusting teaching methods, I will also focus on communication with parents and health education.” The audiologists of a assistive device company that came all the way from Tainan also gave positive feedback, “For minimal hearing loss, I can provide parents with more comprehensive information, which can help them understand the needs of their children, even about problems they may face in the future.”
The Children Hearing Foundation worked with participants from different educational and medical institutions to work on children with minimal hearing loss.
Let the most marginalized needs to be seen
Among the children served by the Children Hearing Foundation, recently more than 50% are children with minimal hearing loss, but they are often overlooked because of the category ‘minimal’. Moreover, often because they are unable to access resources provided by the government, their parents would be less willing to let their child wear assistive devices and arrange treatments. Children Hearing Foundation will continue to work with partners from all around the world to support the minimal hearing loss service project to let marginalized needs to be seen!
