In 2014, new parents Callen and Lauren Hays welcomed fraternal twin boys, August and Landon, into the world. Navigating parenthood came with different challenges when Landon failed his newborn hearing screening. Follow-up testing confirmed permanent hearing loss.
“I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to communicate with his twin brother, August, who has normal hearing,” says Landon’s mother Lauren. “Then, I learned about Memphis Oral School for the Deaf (MOSD), and our lives have never been the same.” Lauren became the executive director of MOSD in 2018. After having served as an on-air meteorologist for Local 24 News, she switched careers to become an even closer part of Landon’s life.
Landon was fitted with hearing aids at 3 months old, and he began Sound Beginnings, a program for infants (birth to age 2) newly diagnosed with hearing loss. He was enrolled in the MOSD preschool at age 2, and now he hears and talks — thanks to early intervention, amplification, and the intensive services provided at MOSD. No sign language is used. Early intervention has helped Landon develop age-appropriate spoken language skills, allowing him to have a future of limitless possibilities.
Memphis Parent spoke to Lauren Hays to find out more about the importance of newborn hearing follow-up testing and how MOSD’s unique auditory-oral education program plays a vital role in empowering children to listen, learn, and talk.
Memphis Parent: Tennessee became the 37th state to adopt the newborn screening mandate in 2007. According to Early Hearing Detection Intervention (EHDI) 2017 statewide statistics, approximately 25 percent of babies who failed the newborn hearing screening never returned for follow-up testing. How important is early detection?
Lauren Hays: Babies begin listening from day one. For babies who fail the newborn hearing screening, follow-up testing is needed immediately to confirm or rule out hearing loss. Advanced technology has made it possible for children whose diagnosis can benefit from hearing aids to be fitted as early as 1 month old, and children can receive cochlear implants beginning at 12 months of age. Studies have shown that eligible children who receive a cochlear implant before 18 months of age develop language skills at a rate comparable to children with normal hearing, and many succeed in mainstream classrooms.
Early identification, early amplification, and early intervention are the keys to building a strong spoken language foundation.
Who are your collaborators and how are they getting this important message to new parents?
To achieve better early intervention outcomes, MOSD collaborates with local and statewide agencies, including partnerships with universities, pediatricians, ENTs, and professionals in the fields of education, audiology, and speech pathology. MOSD partners with Tennessee Early Intervention System (TEIS) and EHDI and has hosted regional meetings to disseminate information to help make the public aware of the importance of follow-up testing.
MOSD’s Sound Beginnings is the only program in our community to help families of infants newly diagnosed with hearing loss. How critical is this early intervention, and what are parents learning from the family training program?
Parents and family members learn through demonstrations and hands-on participation how to create a language-rich environment in their own homes. These experiences help families discover how to turn everyday routines into listening and language learning opportunities.
Weekly sessions are focused on training the parent to become the child’s first teacher. Parents will learn the impact hearing loss can have on the development of their child’s social, cognitive, and language skills, and the importance of amplification. Coaching will give them the tools and techniques to enhance their child’s learning.
Children in Sound Beginnings receive the educational foundation to prepare them for success in the MOSD preschool.
Listening experience in infancy is critical for the development of both speech and language in young children. What role do audiologists play and how is your auditory-oral education program unique in helping reach those hearing development milestones?
MOSD students receive comprehensive audiological evaluations, including speech perception testing to monitor their listening progress over time. Cochlear implant mapping and hearing aid fine-tuning services are also offered to each family.
The audiologists at MOSD perform daily listening checks of hearing aids and perform hearing aid maintenance as needed. They are on site every day to troubleshoot cochlear implant and hearing aid issues. They also provide daily aural habilitation (listening therapy) to help each child maximize his/her listening skills. Goals specific to each child’s listening needs are established to take them from the basics of sound detection to high-level auditory processing tasks.
MOSD audiologists collaborate with the school’s speech language pathologists and teachers to help each child reach his/her educational, speech, language, and auditory goals.
Visit mosdkids.org or call 758-2228 to learn more.