Advanced Bionics

Children with deafness and autism have complex needs that require strong collaboration from a multi-disciplinary team for successful interventions. Service providers may feel uncertain about ways to coordinate and set priorities for these children. This series will explore multidisciplinary perspectives on deafness when it coexists with autism in an effort to help hearing health professionals gain better knowledge of autism and help understand the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Multi-disciplinary perspectives will be offered to help professionals recognize the early signs of autism coexisting with deafness, learn strategies to target more effective evaluation and interventions, and improve services to the child and family. This series will provide resources and clinical examples of Music Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Early Intervention, and School-Age Communication interventions for this unique population.

When deafness coexists with autism, sensory seeking behaviors may be present and interdisciplinary interventions will be necessary for success. Learn the normal development of sensory, attention, and play skills, and understand vestibular processing and how to create and manage interventions that are sensitive and responsive to sensory issues.

Recent surveys have revealed that 1 in 59 children with hearing loss also receives services for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Szymanski, Brice, Lam & Hotto, 2012). Current research demonstrates that many children with ASD respond more frequently and appropriately to music than to other auditory stimuli (Thaut, 1999, Whipple, J. 2004). This presentation will provide resources and clinical examples of music therapy as an intervention for this unique population.

Deafness and autism both affect communication, but deafness is frequently identified before autism. Learn to identify the differences in communication development when a dual diagnosis may exist, proper referral channels, and intervention strategies to promote early listening and communication skills.

Deafness and autism both affect communication, but deafness is frequently identified before autism. Learn to identify the differences in communication development when a dual diagnosis may exist, proper referral channels, and intervention strategies to promote listening and communication skills in the school-age child.