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Pre-Sessions

Registration cost for each pre-session workshop is $25 per person.

Title: Family Support & Empowerment for Children Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Considerations within Humanitarian Efforts
Time: Thursday, October 8th, 9 AM - Noon
Presenters: Lisa Kovacs and Janet DesGeorges, Hands & Voices, www.handsandvoices.org Sheila Moodie PhD, Western University London, ON, Canada http://www.uwo.ca/fhs/csd/
Description: For children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH), the single most important predictor of a newly identified child's success is the meaningful and effective involvement of his or her parents and family. The term, "Family Support" is often used to describe a holistic approach to providing families with resources and supports to assist them with learning how to be meaningfully involved in the care and development of their chi ld who is D/HH. This session will provide both theoretical and practical application of parent - to - parent support in a diversity of settings. The first part of the session provides a conceptual framework of parent - to - parent support for parents with children who are D/HH. The second part will focus on principles of parent - to - parent support and how parent to parent support works within the systems from various countries including the US, Canada, China, Russia, South Africa, and Kenya.
Length: 3 hours
 
Title: Introduction to Public Health Planning for Hearing Impairment
Time: Thursday, October 8th, 9 AM - noon
Presenters: Andrew Smith and Daksha Patel, Hearing Group, International Center for Evidence in Disability (ICED), London School of Hygiene & Tro pical Medicine (LSHTM), London, UK.
Description: Over 360 million people in the world have disabling hearing loss and 80% live in low and middle income (LMI) countries. Despite this massive problem, hearing loss is generally forgotten and neglected in these countries, and there are few trained personnel and a lack of infrastructure and program mess to address it. Clinical approaches need to be supported with population - scale interventions using public health methods. The presenters currently run global 5-day courses which aim to develop an expanding cadre of people in LMI countries with the skills to set up public - health interventions and programmes for prevention and rehabilitation of hearing loss. So far over 400 people have been trained from 40 countries. This introductory session will covers some of the elements in that longer course by focusing on : 1. The global magnitude and burden of hearing Impairment 2. Principles of Public health strategies 3. Over view of ear and hearing health system 4. Principles of planning to influence a change.
Length: 3 hours
 
Title: Operating a Field-based Earmold Lab
Time: Thursday, October 8th, 9 AM - Noon
Presenters: David Pither
Description: One critical component of successful and sustainable community based ear and hearing care services, in a low - and middle - income country, is prompt provision of earmolds for dispensed hearing aids. Though, earmold laboratories can ensure success, the time to train and resources required for production can be very time intensive and cost prohibitive. However, when costs are abated, the earmold lab can become a serendipitous cottage industry opportunity in a region that will benefit from a fiscal boost. This workshop will provide information about materials required as well as the protocol for production. The model created by the charity, Ears, Inc., has been used effectively in many parts of the world, and enhance d local economy with much needed cottage industry skills. The workshop will provide instruction for production materials, and suggest the infra-structure for establishing the earmo ld lab, as well as recommend training procedures for the local program partners.
Length: 3 hours
 
Title: Tour of River School and Georgetown University Audiology
Time: Thursday, October 8th, 9 AM - 4 PM
Presenters: River School, Georgetown University Hospital
Description:

Early identification, audiology, and educational services all play an important role in helping children with hearing loss develop communication skills and language. This tour will begin at the River School. The River School was founded in 1999 as a model for the inclusive education of young children with hearing loss who can access the listening environment using cochlear implants or hearing aids. At the River School, children with hearing loss learn alongside a classroom majority of peers with normal hearing in acoustically modified classrooms. Conference delegates will learn about the River School programs and approach and have the opportunity to observe its early intervention program in action. We will then visit Georgetown University Hospital Department of Audiology Services to explore its diagnostics and hearing aid fitting programs. This will be followed by a lunch presentation about the hospital's EHDI (Early Hearing Detection and Intervention) program for newborns in Washington DC and Maryland. The day will conclude with a group discussion about the services provided by River School and Georgetown University Hospital and how they collaborate to best serve young children with hearing loss across education and hearing healthcare in the region.

*There will be no CEU credit offered for this pre-conference session.

Length: 7 hours
 
Title: Practical Guide to Humanitarian Missions for Improving Hearing Health
Time: Thursday, October 8th, 1 PM - 4 PM
Presenters: Jim Smith and Debra Fried
Description: This workshop will be presented by an audiologist and a otolaryngologist who have more than 40 years of combined experience in organizing humanitarian outreach trips and non-profit programs in Central America, Africa, and Asia. The workshop will explore how humanitarian outreach has changed in recent years and some ethical issues inherit in doing this type of work. The practical issues related to humanitarian trips in audiology and otolaryngology will be explored including selecting a location for the work, recruiting team members, team and local site preparation, equipment needs, establishing follow up, and sustainability issues. Specific issues and methods of educating both the team members and local providers will be presented and discussed. Teaching methods employed in this pre-conference session will include lectures, presentations by a panel of experts (followed by a Q & A session) and conclude with suggestions for best practices for humanitarian trips focusing on hearing health care.
Length: 3 hours
 
Title: How Emerging Findings In Neuroscience Apply to Early Intervention Practices: Addressing Brain Development and Early Visual Language in Infants, Toddlers and Young Children
Time: Thursday, October 8th, 1 PM - 4 PM
Presenters: Dr. Melissa Herzig, Visual Language and Visual Learning, NSF Science of Learning Center at Gallaudet University
Description: The purpose of this session to is share the research findings from Visual Language and Visual Learning, a NSF-funded Science of Learning Center with a goal to better understand the biological, cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural and pedagogical conditions that influence acquisition of language and knowledge through the visual mode. Some of the topics discussed in this workshop will include: advantages of early visual language; language acquisition; visual sign phonology and the importance of fingerspelling for reading; and more. Information about available resources that VL2 produced for early intervention and families will be shared. This includes Parent Information Package, Research Briefs, various ASL Asses sment Tools, and VL2 Storybook Apps.
Length: 3 hours
Title: Tour of Kendall Demonstration Elementary School
Time: Thursday, October 8th, 10 AM - 1 PM
Presenters: Matthew Bakke, Debbie Trapani , and Beth Benedict
Description:

Join our hosts from Gallaudet with a tour of the Kendall Demonstration School that today serves deaf and hard of hearing students from birth through 8th grade. Tuition is free and students come from the Metropolitan Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The tour will continue at the Gallaudet University Hearing and Speech Center Program Services which provides a wide variety of services to all members of Gallaudet community and residents of Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. There will be other opportunities during the tour to learn more about the history while enjoying the beautiful grounds of the Gallaudet campus.

*There will be no CEU credit offered for this pre-conference session.

Length: 3 hour