“The emotionality of a child’s diagnosis with severe to profound hearing impairment is itself profound. We hold a lot of expectations of what life will be like with a new child, and most of those expectations presume that we’re able to communicate orally with our children. Discovering a hearing loss that will significantly impact communication is shocking.”
– Danica Billingsly, Au.D., audiology clinical faculty member with NIU’s School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders
During a weeklong summer internship at the Illinois School for the Deaf, it was the eyes of NIU doctoral student Shawna Jackson that were opened.
Jackson, who will graduate in the spring of 2009 as a doctor of audiology, served as the first-ever (and only) audiology intern during the school’s Institute for Parents of Preschool Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
Parents with children ages birth to 3 who recently were diagnosed with severe or profound hearing loss come to learn about the new lives they must lead while their children receive complete multi-disciplinary diagnostics.
Jackson conducted hearing tests on the children, met with parents and attended and assisted at evening seminars.
She saw that her chosen profession deals with much more than ears: It requires good counseling skills. Many of the parents are working through the stages of grief, coping with denial, anger, bargaining and depression on their way to acceptance. Most are confused. Some blame themselves. They all need education and moral support.
“I’ve always wanted to work with kids. Now I know I love working with parents,” Jackson says. “It really reinforced to me the need to work with parents – to be someone who sits down to answer their questions and calm their fears. They were so new to the idea of deafness and hearing loss.”
Jackson also realized that she is truly needed: “Most of the parents said there are just not enough audiologists who specialize in children. I heard it over and over.”
– Mark McGowan, NIU Public Affairs