One of the key focus areas of these presentations was outcomes “From Hearing Screening to School”.

The results in the “Hearing Screening to School” paper were for 21 children who have started school in the last two years who were diagnosed through Newborn Hearing Screening. Of these 21 children, 13 wore hearing aids, 3 were unilateral CI users and 5 were bilateral CI users.

Listening, Speech and Language results for the 21 children who have started school in the last two years were reviewed.  When they started with TSC program, all 21 children were categorized as having minimal to no awareness of sound. At graduation, the majority were scoring at the highest listening category that includes following recorded stories and talking on the telephone.  Language wise, 80% of the children had age appropriate vocabulary scores by the time they left The Shepherd Centre and started school. This is a fantastic result considering 87% of children without hearing loss score at age appropriate levels.

This information was highly regarded by the audience of therapists, audiologists and Ear Nose and Throat specialists and sparked much discussion during and after the presentations.

We look forward to presenting further outcomes from The Shepherd Centre on working with Children with Cochlear Implants in two oral presentations and one poster presentation at the 7th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants and Related Sciences in Singapore in December.