Thirty-three babies a day are born in the United States with significant hearing loss—the most common of all birth defects. Thanks to recent advances in universal newborn hearing screening programs, hearing aids and cochlear implants, these losses can be identified within a few weeks of birth instead of at age two or three, like they used to be. The earlier the intervention, the more likely these children can learn to speak English and thrive in neighborhood schools without special education services.

USU’s Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education and National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management were recently awarded a $3-million grant to launch a one-of-a kind-initiative in the intermountain West.  “Sound Beginnings of Cache Valley” will provide an alternative for parents who want their children to communicate primarily through oral means rather than with American sign language. It will also provide interdisciplinary training for graduate students.

This fall, a tuition-free preschool will open for three-to-five year olds that is staffed by specialists in early childhood deaf education, pediatric audiologists and speech-language pathologists. “Sound Beginnings” will also include home visits for infants and toddlers, and support services that ease the transition into kindergarten and public schools. All of these programs will be coordinated with the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind and other service providers in the region.

“Parents should be able to choose how they want to communicate with their children,” program director Todd Houston says. “Ninety-five percent of all newborns with permanent hearing loss are born to hearing parents, and with all of the advances in the field, most of these parents want to communicate via spoken language. Many parents are getting their children cochlear implants, and these children need intensive follow-up to take full advantage of this technology.”

Houston, the former executive director and CEO of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Washington, D.C., says there is little point in putting in cochlear implants if they are not followed by appropriate intervention and support. 

For more information, call (435) 797-7554.  —Tim Vitale ’92