By Shelley R. Moats
This article is a part of the July/August 2018, Volume 30, Number 4, Audiology Today issue.
I have been practicing audiology since 1996 and started out as a jack of all trades—seeing patients of all ages, providing a variety of diagnostic services, and fitting hearing aids to patients of all ages. Early in my career, I developed a strong interest in working with children with hearing loss and their families. While I had some opportunities to provide this service initially, I did not begin to exclusively see children until a job change in 2005 led me to an exclusively pediatric position. I was excited for this change as my desire to become a pediatric audiologist had blossomed significantly, and my caseload had shifted in this direction naturally over time along with my interests.
Pediatrics
In 2005, I took a position in a university setting where I was not only providing pediatric audiology services but teaching doctor of audiology (AuD) students to provide best practice services and interventions. It became clear that pediatric audiology meant different things to different providers. We worked hard as a faculty to impart the need to adhere to guidelines published by our professional organizations, but our students reported that procedures were not consistent across their clinical placements and fourth-year sites. In addition, we had the task of teaching our students that good pediatric audiology was not strictly about audiology. We function as case managers, make referrals to other health-care providers, help parents deal with their emotions when their child is diagnosed, advocate for educational services for our patients, help families find funding for devices…the list is endless.
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