This content of this course will include a description of evidence-based tools suitable for measuring auditory outcomes in infants and young children who wear hearing aids. Practical applications will be discussed to provide support for clinical uptake.

This course describes the role of the pediatric audiologist along with public health in providing services to a child who has been identified as having hearing loss or at risk for hearing loss. The collaboration of the pediatric audiologist and the state Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program is essential to ensuring the child receives the services to which they are entitled.

Social and emotional development is often overlooked in our academic-focused education systems yet the impact of social-emotional well-being for children who are deaf and hard of hearing has a significant impact on school performance and post-school outcomes. This presentation will focus on identity, self-concept, social communication, self-determination and self-advocacy as part of the educational program.

This course provides clinical tools to the cochlear implant (CI) audiologist and goes beyond the basics. A review of past and present cochlear implant candidacy criteria for pediatrics and adults and ways to identify potential cochlear implant patients is discussed. Various ways to measure the quality of life in the cochlear implant population is covered. In addition, data are presented regarding the quality of life outcomes in adult cochlear implant recipients.

Educational audiology is a related service stated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (special education law), but service provision varies, depending on the area of the country. This course will describe how clinical audiologists can support their patients and advocate for educational audiology services.

The proportion of challenging pediatric cases is on the rise. This course features clinicians from Boston Children’s Hospital describing tactics that can be used to improve the quality and quantity of audiometric test information obtained through behavioral testing.

This course will discuss the importance of supporting and empowering parents and caregivers from the point of a child’s newborn hearing screening through school age. Parents report a need for different types of supports at different points in their family journey and audiologists and other professionals are in a unique position to provide or facilitate support of families across time.

Functional auditory assessment and continuing assessment is critical in order to determine the current level of function, develop appropriate goals for intervention, and achieve maximum outcomes. Learning to listen drives everything else: speech intelligibility, language competence, reading, academics, and life-long learning. This course offers a detailed look at functional auditory assessment and intervention, to provide audiologists with a better understanding of hearing loss in children in terms of the broader speech, language, learning and academic contexts. Additional videos to demonstrate key points will be included.

There are many controversies regarding APD testing in school-aged children. Dr. Lucker will discuss the important controversies including evidence that supports or refutes many, such as the youngest age to evaluate a child, whether APD should be recognized as a learning disability in schools, and how to evaluate and interpret APD tests on children identified with intellectual disabilities.

As indications for cochlear implantation (CI) expand, children with significant unilateral hearing loss are being considered for candidacy. This course will focus on 12-month outcomes obtained as part of a clinical trial investigating safety and efficacy of cochlear implantation in this population.