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Today, I’m so excited to welcome Dr. Tina Childress to the show! 

As an Educational Audiologist who is also bilateral cochlear implant user, Dr. Childress has had the unique experience of navigating audiology as both a patient and a doctor. 

Because of this, she has a wealth of knowledge and resources to share, and luckily for us she is here today to discuss all of this extremely helpful information. 

This week on All About Audiology: 

* 2:18 – A free downloadable gift for our listeners! “How to Connect With Your Baby in Five Easy Steps” has exercises between 1 to 5 minutes long and can be found at www.allaboutaudiology.com/baby

* 4:23 – You can also find the 5 step guide to navigate your child’s hearing loss on our website at www.allaboutaudiology.com/guide or www.allaboutaudiology.com/guia for the Spanish version.

* 9:06 – Tina was originally pursuing a career in engineering when she realized it was not something she wanted to continue with. After receiving a Masters Degree in Audiology, she decided she wanted to work with children, and now works in an Educational Audiology office. 

* 18:54 – Speech perception testing is important, and can be done in different conditions to see how a child responds. For example, tests can be run with or without hearing aids and with different levels of background noise.

* 20:55 – An Educational Audiologist will run a series of tests and then write a report on how to best assist a child in the classroom. This can include sitting them to the front of the room, and providing lip reading information.

* 23:44 – Children who have mild to moderate hearing loss can have worse outcomes due to receiving less intervention. It’s important that mild conditions are taken more seriously, so that all children receive the support they need. 

* 24:19 – Nine months after starting her job, Tina became very ill with a high fever. About a month later, she began to notice hearing loss which quickly progressed, and was eventually diagnosed with Auto-Immune Inner Ear Disease.

* 32:34 – The goal is communication, not being able to hear better. Communicating in some way is much more important than not communicating at all.

* 34:34 – Some people in the deaf community may use code switching for different situations. For example, they may function as a deaf person if they are using ASL while speaking to another deaf person, but function as a hearing person if someone is speaking to them using a loud, clear voice.

* 36:02 – Parent’s might worry about how or where their children will fit in, but kids shouldn’t have to choose one method of communication over another. They may communicate one way with their family at home, and another way in school with their friends, and that is perfectly ok.

* 36:50 – Lack of language can impact a child for the rest of their lives. It’s better for children to have access to more than one method of communication than none at all. The worst that can happen is your child will end up being bilingual! 

* 38:00 – The sign for intersection represents the world or identity you identify with. The world is constantly changing, and there’s no way of knowing how your child will identify late...