Catherine Palmer, in her General Assembly Speech at the Academy’s 2019 annual conference, inspired us by emphasizing that audiologists have an incredibly important and expanded role in the health and well-being of the people we serve. 

“Audiologists start a chain of events for a child that will promote reading, education, and employment,” she said in her address. 

That chain of events starts with a child learning to listen and learning spoken language. This article will address the audiologist’s role in those events from a very practical perspective.

Our clinical concerns for children who are deaf or hard of hearing center on providing audible and comfortable access to sound. Our counterparts in speech-language pathology focus on developing receptive and expressive communication skills. 

Although our field excels at helping children with hearing loss who use auditory technology (i.e., hearing aids and/or cochlear implants) acquire speech, language, and hearing skills, we do not necessarily shine in addressing how these children use their communication abilities in the real world. 

My Hearing-Loss Journey 

My hearing-loss journey began as a child, watching my father struggle with the stigma of his hearing loss.  

His hearing loss developed in early adulthood, an unwanted nuisance he inherited from his mother. I vaguely remember him wearing one hearing aid, and then two, and proceeding to grow his sideburns long over his ears to hide the evidence. This looked okay in the 1970s, but his sideburns stayed long his entire life, even as fashions changed.