Hearing Aids Are Only The Start

Your child can “pass” a school hearing screening and still miss huge parts of daily life. That gap is where frustration, fatigue, and quiet slipping-behind can start, even when grades look fine on paper.

Your Child Has Hearing Loss. Now What? Download Dana's FREE guide for parents. Hearing aids open the door to sound. But navigating school, talking to teachers, and supporting your child at home is a whole separate journey. This free guide was created by a Speech-Language Pathologist and mom of a child with hearing loss to help you take confident next steps. 

We’re joined by Dana Ann Hawkins, a speech-language pathologist and mom, who shares her daughter Emma’s journey with hearing loss, ear infections, and finally getting hearing aids. We talk honestly about the moment many families don’t expect: the hearing aids help, but they don’t magically solve noisy classrooms, fast directions, or social chaos in hallways and lunchrooms. Dana breaks down the difference between hearing in quiet and functional listening in real-world environments, plus what “total communication” really looks like at school and at home.

A major part of our conversation is advocacy. Dana walks through pushing for a 504 plan, getting denied because Emma was “doing well,” and what it took to reconvene with the right team and the right understanding of how accommodations work. We also get specific about assistive technology and modern school barriers, like locked Chromebooks that can block Bluetooth streaming to hearing aids during standardized testing. If you’ve ever felt like you’re explaining hearing loss from scratch to a school system, you’ll feel seen.

We also cover carryover strategies, listening fatigue, self-advocacy language kids can use, and why collaboration between hearing care professionals, audiologists, and speech-language pathologists can close the follow-up gap after a fitting. If you find this helpful, subscribe, share it with a parent or educator, and leave a review so more families can find practical support.

Connect with Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP: 

Instagram: Speech and Language Explained

Facebook: Dana Ann Hawkins

Linkedin: Dana Ann Hawkins

Visit our website and take our quick online hearing screener. 

And if you're ready to take the next step, our online hearing care provider locator can help you find a trusted hearing care professional near you. Taking that first step can make a meaningful difference, helping you stay connecting to the people and moments that matter most. 

Omega AI hearing aids don’t just keep up. They redefine what it means to be modern and discreet yet durable and comfortable for all-day wear.

They’re waterproof, everyday-proof, and designed to go the distance of your day and then some. All while tailored to your unique hearing needs.

Connect with the Hearing Matters Podcast Team

Email: hearingmatterspodcast@gmail.com

Instagram: @hearing_matters_podcast

Facebook: Hearing Matters Podcast

Transcript

Welcome And Partner Thanks

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 0:06

Welcome back to the Hearing Matters Podcast, where we explore hearing technology, communication science, and the people and ideas shaping the future of hearing health care and hearing loss around the world. Before we kick things off, a special thank you to our partners. Care Credit. Here today to help more people here tomorrow. Inventis. Inventist is innovation. Blueprint Solutions. Clinic management made easy for hearing care professionals. Now with Blueprint AI and fader plugs. The world's first custom adjustable earplug. Welcome back to another episode of the Hearing Matters Podcast. I'm your founder and host, Blaise Delfino. And as a friendly reminder, this podcast is separate from my work at Starkey. Now, let's get into the conversation. I'm your host, Blaise Delfino, and joining me today is Dana Ann Hawkins, speech language pathologist. Now, if you've been tuning into the Hearing Matters podcast the past couple of months, you'll know that we are really emphasizing and highlighting total communication, communication sciences as a whole. And we have quite the episode for you today. Dana Ann, welcome to the Hearing Matters Podcast.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 1:25

Thank you so much for that great welcome. It's so great to be here, and I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 1:30

So I just have to give praise here and just thank you for all that you're doing for the communication sciences field because I've been following you on social media now for the past couple of months, and your content is exceptional. I love how you take that educational approach. And Dana, you have a personal investment, if you will, a personal story in communication sciences and disorders. Take us back to your daughter's journey because I know that she presents with hearing loss, correct?

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 2:05

She does. She actually obtained her first pair of hearing aids about six months ago. So we are now on this full journey. So when my daughter was born, she had frequent ear infections, which we see in children often in the speech community. We notice that children have speech delays, and a lot of times they have that fluid buildup in their ears and they're not able to hear all the sounds. And that was the case with my daughter. We actually went through three different sets of ear tubes now. She's 13. So this has been an ongoing journey. But as of six months ago, she was able to get our first pair of hearing aids. And now we started this whole brand new exciting journey. She now has access to those sounds she was missing. And she's able to now focus on total communication at home, in school, and with all of her friends. And it's just been an amazing start.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 2:54

So, Dana, before we really deep dive into not only your daughter's journey, but how you serve patients on their better hearing journey, you are a speech language pathologist. Bring me through, you know, really what inspired you to become an SLP and what you focus on in terms of scope of practice, because the scope of practice in speech language pathology is quite vast.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 3:21

So I used to be a special education teacher, and my daughter was born extremely early. My first daughter was a micropremee born at 23 weeks. So she had a lot of struggles. She had a six-month NICU stay and had a lot of struggles during that time. And one of the biggest struggles was feeding and being able to hear those sounds as she grew older. And during that time, my love for speech developed. I wanted to focus more on speech directly instead of full special education. I wanted to specialize in speech. So at that point, I went back and decided that I'm going full into speech. So I specialize in pediatric speech. And then I've become very interested the last couple of years on that auditory component of it. So now I'm working more with when children, adults have that hearing loss. What we can do as speech pathologists to help them with total communication so they're able to hear those sounds and take all that information in and be able to fully participate in their everyday life activities.

School Screenings Versus Real Listening

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 4:21

Thank you for sharing that story, Dana, because the experience I'm sure that you know you had in the NICU. I mean, first and foremost, the stress, the unknown. Our son was in the NICU for a week, but very eye-opening. And I'm so appreciative not only of NICU nurses, but I had the chance to meet one of the SLPs here at MUSC in Charleston, South Carolina. And just the feeding aspect, it's so essential. And that's why we want to raise awareness of the scope of practice of speech language pathology, but also how SLPs can really collaborate with hearing care professionals to enhance overall and total communication. Now, when we talk about hearing, hearing loss, school-based screenings, I know that when I was in elementary school, now here's the thing: being genetically predisposed, I grew up with a hearing test booth in my home. So my father would put me in the booth and test my hearing. So when I would go to the school screenings, it was, you know, raise your hand when you hear the beep, okay. And it's usually 500, 1, 2, and 4,000 hertz. And then they say pass or no pass. But you had mentioned that your daughter passed school hearing screenings. So what was being missed?

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 5:43

So school screenings are very helpful. Students are able to have them most years. And like you said, my daughter did pass every year. School screenings are limited, though. They're done in quiet environments and they focus on whether a child can detect those little sounds, those little beeps. But there's a big difference between listening in a quiet environment. That's where my daughter excels, versus listening in a classroom when the teacher's talking, kids are moving around, other people are speaking. There's a big difference between that quiet environment, being able to hear, and actually being able to hear and listen within that noisy setting, that crowded classroom, that lunchroom. Those are very different ways of listening.

Hearing Aids Start The Marathon

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 6:24

Well, and when we talk about functional communication, so when children are in a quiet environment and that one-on-one conversation is happening, you're more so able to hear the nuances of speech, especially the fricatives, the S as in Sam or T as in Tumble. And then when you go into that complex listening situation, that's also where that social and community building is really important, even learning pragmatics of speech, right? Pragmatics is that use of social language. And I'm so happy that you emphasize that because it's the simple listening environments compared to those complex listening environments. Now, when she was finally fit with hearing aids, what were some of your expectations? Because this episode is really geared towards pediatrics and parents who are experiencing what you went through with their child being diagnosed with hearing loss.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 7:22

So when she first got the hearing aids, we weren't really sure what to expect. I knew she would hear better. She was so excited. She was taking out to Starkey and given these hearing aids, and they were customized for her. So she had this best experience. And when she put those hearing aids in, she was able to hear those sounds. And I almost thought, great, wonderful, we've solved this problem. And then as she started to wear them, we knew she was still having some of those issues. Sometimes she would respond to her name, sometimes she wouldn't. In the classrooms, she was still missing some of those directions. So we realized that hearing aids are the beginning of the journey. They are that foundation. And then we have that rest of that marathon to go through to reach that end where she's able to hear that total communication and understand it all.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 8:10

Dana, what was your advocacy like once your daughter was experiencing this new hearing world? I mean, as a speech language pathologist, you obviously have that scientific baseline and then taking that and sort of making it palatable to someone who may not have gone to school for speech, or maybe it's their teacher. What was advocacy like during that time?

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 8:38

So I thought it would actually be pretty smooth. After she got the hearing aids, I contacted her school. I let them know she has her hearing aids, that this is a medical condition. And I was interested in getting her a 504 plan. So a 504 plan in school is not an IEP, it's not that individual education plan, but it's a plan based on health needs and what accommodations a student needs and able to access that education with whatever condition they may have. So we brought in a list of communication accommodations from her audiologist, such as preferential seating, having repeated directions, sitting near the teacher, having the teacher look at her before they talk to her. And her teachers were wonderful. They started implementing this right away. And then this was back in October, and we were told that she would have a meeting in December to formally establish this plan. So when you have a 504 plan, the whole team meets. So it's her teachers, the administration, a hearing itinerant, mom, dad, whoever is there, the parents, this whole team meets to go through what is happening and what accommodations would help her access that education. So for my daughter, when we went into that meeting, we talked about how well she's doing at school. The teachers went around and discussed she's in advanced reading, that she's having no problems in school. She's getting good grades. The teachers talked about how friendly she is. She talks socially with other kids and they had no issues in school. And at that point, they denied her 504 plan. They said she is doing so well that she didn't need it. So at that point, I was taken aback a little bit. Just being in the special education world and being an SLP, I do know that hearing loss is a medical condition. And her school at that point said it wasn't. So I was taken back a little bit at that point because I have six people in the room that are telling me hearing loss is not a medical condition. And as a parent, I was taken aback because I know that it is. This is my daughter. So I want to make sure I'm advocating for her. And I was taken aback why the school wasn't wanting to participate in that. And then I realized they just didn't know much about it. They just weren't knowledgeable about hearing loss. They said they haven't had many students that have hearing loss, which I was kind of a little bit taken aback of because there are other students that have hearing loss, but maybe they didn't need those accommodations. So we went back into the meeting. That first meeting ended with the denial. And I left going, I'm not happy about that. I am part of the team member, and every parent out there should know if they go to their students, whether it's an IEP meeting, a 504 plan, they are part of that team and they can advocate for themselves and their child. So at that point, I left and I knew I needed to do something else. So I came up with a letter that I emailed out to everybody explaining the process of a 504, what the conditions are that need to be met, and what they didn't follow legally. My biggest issue was that a 504 plan is the medical condition without any mitigation. So Emma at that point had hearing aids. They said how well the hearing aids worked. They already were doing the preferential seating. They said that worked so well for her. The teachers explained where she was sitting within the classroom. They said they repeated directions for her. So she was already getting all those accommodations. And that's why she was succeeding. But a 504 plan is based on whether they would succeed without all of that. And that's what our school didn't understand. They saw her succeeding, but they didn't realize that the 504 plan is based without that, without those hearing aids, without the seating, without having her teachers repeat directions. So we did reconvene after that message. We brought in a hearing itinerant, which I thought definitely should have been part of the team to start with. And then we had a whole new evaluation, and then the 504 did go through.

Testing Tech And Locked Computers

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 13:25

Well, Dana, your advocacy, of course, this is your child, and you want the best education for your child, the best experience for your child. And I love the fact that you were able to take a step back, but I'm sure at that time you're feeling all these feelings. I'm angle, the you're feeling all these feelings anger, denial. You know about hearing loss and the impacts that it has, whereas that administration, they didn't. And I'm so grateful I had the experience during my school-based externship to sit in on a few IEP 504 plan meetings. And it really did expand my understanding of you have to meet the parents where they're at, and we have to discuss what accommodations we have to implement for the child, for these students. And my hope is that this episode, if there's a parent out there who's experiencing something similar, they follow the Dana Ann Hawkins protocol of advocate for your child. Don't give up, don't stop, because they deserve the greatest education, the best education, and the best experience while being educated in the school. So thank you for sharing that because I'm sure it was a challenging, windy road, Dana, for sure.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 14:50

It wasn't. It's actually still continuing. So when that meeting is done, that doesn't mean that they will have those accommodations all the time and be set for the rest of the school year or even the years following. So for example, my daughter right now has this standardized testing. So that's once or twice a year. Every kid in the school sits on their computer for about two to three hours and takes, whether it's reading or math, the full testing for the state. And one of her accommodations is that her laptop, so they have a Chromebook, streams directly to her hearing aids. So all the other kids wear the wired headphones. And when this came about, I did email the school and asked, how would this look for Emma? She needs to be able to stream them to her hearing aids and not have those wired headphones. So this was about two weeks ago. And then her testing happened today, or it started yesterday, her testing, and I asked her how it went. And she said that the principal called her to the side and told them that they weren't able to figure out her laptop to stream to her hearing aids. So she had two choices yesterday. She could either skip the testing and sit quietly in the office while her friends did the testing and then make up the testing in two weeks after spring break. Or she could just put the headphones on over her hearing aids and take the testing. And Emma ended up, she knew it would be a quiet environment where she does the best in. She didn't want to be taken away from her friends and put in the office for a couple hours and then have to do that testing again at a different time. So she did choose to go ahead with that testing, but they didn't meet those accommodations that she needed. And then this happened again. I would assume is happening right now while we are speaking because she has another day of testing. And I called them last night. And as of last night, they still hadn't figured out her laptop. So it is frustrating from a parent standpoint because you know what your child needs. You know, technology nowadays has so many different aspects of how this could work. And it's simple Bluetooth technology. It streams to her phone, it streams to her home computer, it could easily stream to the school computer if they were to put the correct settings on it. And we're waiting for those settings to be put on. And in the meantime, she now has headphones on over her hearing aids. So that doesn't really fit into her accommodations, but they did give her that option to wait on the testing. But at that point, a child does not want to be taken away from their friends, have to sit in the office and have to do their testing at a different time.

Free Guide For Parents And Teachers

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 17:18

Dana, I'm curious. If you could replay all of this from the beginning, what do you wish you knew as a parent of a child with hearing loss talking about a 504 plan and really advocating for better accommodations? What do you wish you knew from the very beginning? And what would you maybe have done differently?

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 17:43

So I do wish I knew more of the IT standpoint of it. I knew her hearing aids are Bluetooth capable and can stream to different devices. What I didn't realize at school computers, and this happens in all kinds of districts, they're locked. Parents have no access to the settings. The kids have no access to the settings. The administration is the only one with access to these settings or the IT department. So I wish I knew back at the time of her meeting how to write out exactly those steps that would be needed in order for her to be able to use those hearing aids with the Bluetooth capabilities on it.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 18:18

I know that you have a new resource. It's a free resource on your website. Tell us a little bit more about that because I believe that there's definitely some information in there that parents can utilize, not only with their child who presents with hearing loss and wears hearing aids, but even talking to schools about accommodations.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 18:41

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm very excited for this with everything we've gone to and also being a speech pathologist. I thought it would be really great to help parents that have students or children that have a hearing loss to be able to have a free guide that kind of navigates this whole journey. When you get hearing aids, that is the foundation. Children are able to access those sounds they're not able to hear, but that doesn't mean they're able to fully communicate within the school, at home, in social settings. So I took all this information as a mom and a speech pathologist, and I walk parents through the steps of once you get those hearing aids, what's next? This includes everything from a 504 plan to accommodations they may need. This includes everything they can work on at home to talk to their child about how they're emotionally doing, what accommodations they might need at home, what it looks like, and how to practice this. And then one of the most helpful things for my daughter, and she loved being able to do this herself, being that she is 13, is there's a page in there that's blank with some questions on it. And the child reads through the questions and fills it out for their teacher. So it's very personalized. So my daughter's first one said, like, what helps me most in the classroom? And she was able to put down sitting near the teacher, away from the hallway or the air conditioning, and being able to look at the teacher. So she was able to answer all these questions and give them to each teacher so that the teacher had her personal needs met of what works best for her. So within this freebie, the parents can see what they need to do to take that next step to help their children once they get the hearing aids, what they can do at school to help them for accommodations, what they can work on at home. And then the kids also can take that step for self-advocacy to fill out those sheets and be able to hand them out at school or even after-school activities, any of their communication partners that may not understand hearing loss or what that person individually needs.

Carryover At Home And Listening Fatigue

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 20:44

I love this resource. First and foremost, on behalf of the industry, thank you, thank you, thank you. Because I know there's other professionals out there that are releasing free resources to parents. And it's so important because we live in the most socially connected day and age to ever exist, right? So we have information at our fingertips and big proponent of evidence-based and information coming from professionals practicing in the field. So on behalf of the communication sciences industry and field, thank you, Dana, for bringing that to light. And I know it's a lot of work to do, but you're passionate about it and you're talking about your own experience with your daughter's hearing loss and the journey that you went through. So I think you're gonna help a lot, a lot of parents on that journey. Now, you had mentioned carryover as you were talking about this free resource. So, yes, I went to school for speech language pathology. I never got my C's certificate of clinical competence following graduate school because I made the decision to go into private practice. So I am a hearing instruments specialist and I have my master's in speech path. Now, the carryover, when we talk about carryover with the adult population, I remember I would fit my patients with hearing technology, best practices, A-Z, and I would create this journal for them that they would take home and I would talk to their communication partner, whether it be their spouse, their friend, their neighbor, whoever was closest to them and their family, we would talk about carryover. And what's interesting is obviously working with the adult population, carryover might be a little bit easier because they're adults, maybe sometimes. So, but you know, they're they're older, you know, receptive language and all that stuff. But when you're working with the people, Pediatric population, even if you know, you have a toddler at home who is just fit with hearing aids. What does carryover at home actually look like with the pediatric population in a real day-to-day setting? And I'm sure it changes. So kind of bring us through that.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 23:00

Yeah. So it definitely changes within the lifespan. So when we talk about toddlers with hearing loss, we typically see that as more of a speech delay. Children come in not hearing their sounds, not knowing their sounds because they can't hear them. They're not able to produce a lot of words. They have maybe minimal words or parts of words. Maybe they have the beginning sounds of words. So in toddlers, we notice a lot more of just those sounds missing and those words missing. And when they're able to get those hearing aids, at the toddler stage, it's accessing those single sounds. They're able to start learning all their different letter sounds and being able to form words. As we look at school-aged children, our language and communication becomes more and more complex as we grow up. At school-aged children, now we're looking at listening within the classroom, being able to follow complicated instructions, especially when we get to math and algebra. There's all these different steps they have to take. And they have to be able to hear all of them and not just hear them, but receptively hear those sounds, understand it, and be able to follow those directions. And then we get to the social setting. When they become teenagers or even older kids, they want to be able to talk with their friends. And kids talk in the lunchroom and you hear sounds coming from all over, you hear the trays, you hear people moving around, you hear friends talking, maybe someone yelling, announcements being said. And they have to filter that information and be able to socially interact with their friends. And then you get to the classroom environment too, walking to the classroom, going through that hallway, you have people walking, their feet hitting the ground, you have friends talking, you have maybe some music playing. And they need to be able to hear all those sounds, which those hearing aids give great access to. But then they have to understand them. They have to take all of those sounds and process it in their brain to be able to understand what they're hearing, filter out what they need to know, and then communicate it back. That is exhausting for a child with hearing loss. Being able to do all that extra work in their brain can be absolutely exhausting. So my daughter, for example, when she gets home at the end of the day, she's ready to collapse pretty much. She just wants to lay on the couch. Music is her outlet. She absolutely loves music. So she puts her music on and she kind of relaxes with her music and needs to kind of decompress from the day because she is exhausted just from taking all of those sounds and being able to filter all that information. Her brain's on overdrive, taking all of this in. And you just see that listening fatigue. We thought maybe with the hearing aids, that would go away more because those hearing aids give access to the sounds. And that was surprising for me as she could hear all those sounds, and she was so excited to hear all those sounds. But she's still exhausted at the end of the day because she's still getting used to it. Her brain is still taking in that information and finding all those new connections in there. Now she's getting all this information and her brain's just in overtime. And we're seeing it as we go on in months here. And that's why we know that this is a journey now, and it's not, you get the hearing aids, and it's kind of all better. Oh, the hearing aids are the foundation. And now we're going to take this wonderful journey to learn that full communication in all the different settings. So at home for us, after she comes home, I do a check-in with her. We talk about her day. And instead of like simply, how was your day? We talk about any maybe challenges she had, any difficulties she had, any great moments she had. She's hearing all these different sounds now. And one of her best moments is she's in choir. So she's a singer. And she really struggled to hear these different notes. And hearing aids, also a different aspect, have all this technology. Kids nowadays love technology. And her hearing aids have a music setting. And that is by far her favorite setting. So one day she came home and she was like, I was able to hear the different notes in choir. I was able to hear a note I didn't hear before. And so being able to share that emotional connection too when she faces those challenges, but also when she has these positives that come out of hearing those new sounds with her hearing aids. And then we also take throughout the day and make sure we use those different accommodations they use within the school. So if I'm downstairs and she is upstairs, I know I cannot say her name's Emma. I can't say Emma and give her a bunch of directions and expect for her to hear them. I need to call her, make sure she hears me, and then we try to talk face to face. I always say, Emma, make sure you're looking at me or can you hear me? Like look towards me, make sure you're looking at mom. And we try to make sure her teachers do that too, because when someone is able to see the person speaking, they're able to see the mouth movement too, which really helps to identify the sounds and words that are being said. So for her, it looks like at home being able to work on those communication skills, being able to talk, looking at each other, asking her to repeat directions back, or if she doesn't hear something now that she's 13, being older, it's really important for the children to have those self-advocate skills for them to be able to say, I heard this, but I might have missed this. She's come a long way instead of just going, huh? Like you hear people do pretty often, to be able to say, This is what I heard. I think I might have missed something. It's working on communication strategies like that. And that's part of the freebie too, is talking about these other strategies because parents may not know that there's things like saying, I missed this part, or I heard this, being able to tell what information you heard, and then letting someone else fill in maybe what you did miss. So there's so many strategies you can use at home that help your student and child throughout their whole life, then in all those everyday activities.

Do Hearing Aid Kids Need SLP

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 29:06

Well, and just even these strategies that you're teaching Emma at home, but also other parents can teach. I mean, regarding carryover with the adult population after fitting them with hearing technology, I would often tell the, would most often be the husband, like, don't talk to your wife with your back to her now. Like, it's not fair. And we would demonstrate that in the office. Like, do you see how much easier it is to hear when I face you? And then you have that dual sensory input, you can read their mouth. And with the technology today, not only the hearing aids, but also remote microphones. And I'm so excited and hopeful that, and I really do believe this, that Oracast is just going to help so many students and the pediatric population in that school-based setting to have that direct audio input. Because I will say, Dana, in grad school, we had our audiology professor, I have to shout her out, Dr. Susan Dilmouth Miller. She's the best. Loved having her as a professor. She actually used an FM system for all of her students. And when I tell you I had reduced listening effort, and it just made me feel like, ugh, like I can understand what the heck she's saying. I don't have to focus so much. Because even though I had normal hearing, majority of my colleagues did, you have to put a lot of effort into that. And you're hearing that's a whole new language you're learning in grad school, right? You know that. So when it is that reduced listening effort, it's much easier for you to retain that, to pay attention. So I can't say I know how Emma feels because I don't wear hearing aids and I don't present with hearing loss, but I can understand how she feels when she has that technology in that school-based setting. And then, of course, going home, you know, shout out to you, mom, because yes, you're an SLP, you know what carryover should look like. And the importance of it, what you're doing is you're also teaching her how to advocate for herself. Now, something that I've been meaning to ask you should every child with hearing aids also be working with and seeing a speech language pathologist? And if so, how long is it case-by-case basis? What does that look like? And what would you recommend?

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 31:33

So I think it really depends on the child, but in many cases, speech is so helpful after the fact. It depends on their age what it would look like. Like we talked earlier, for those toddlers, it looks like more gaining all those different sounds to learn your letters, to learn your S's, your Ms, to look hear the vowel sounds, to be able to combine those together to start to form words. And then to hear all these other words. Children before the age of three, their brains are like sponges. They get all of this information in and learn all this new vocabulary. And then as they get older, though, at that school age setting, we're looking more of that total communication in everyday life, in the school setting, in the social setting. As speech pathologists, we work on more of just sounds. The we have such a wide variety of things we can do in speech. I think a lot of times people think of speech as just working on those sounds. My child isn't able to say the S sound and maybe comes out a little spitty. Let's go to speech. And that's a lot of times what you think of speech, but we also work with older children. We work on listening, on comprehension, on language, and those communication strategies. It's about helping them manage real life communication demands with their friends, with their family, with their teachers in everyday life. So there's so many aspects of speech that we can help with once they gain access to those sounds. But it really does depend on the child and their family and what their needs might be.

How Audiology And SLP Collaborate

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 34:11

Dana, to your point, I feel as though that when people do hear the word speech language pathologist or speech therapy, they really do only think about the S sound, or, oh, if someone has a lateral lisp, they go to the speech teacher, they go there for a couple of sessions. If someone can't pronounce the R correctly, send them the speech. But the scope of practice for speech language pathologists is so vast. I mean, we're talking about fluency, articulation, cognition, pediatric feeding, adult feeding. That's to name a few. Voice. My medical externship was in the hospital setting. So we did school-based, of course, and then hospital setting. And I was very excited to focus on voice because of my background in music, really interesting stuff. Was able to work with a patient who presented with a hemiglossectomy. Never drank, never smoked a day in their life, had to have half of her tongue surgically removed. And we worked on feeding. And how that makes me feel. So speech language pathologists have their hands in a lot, and you help so many patients from all walks of life. And I'm so grateful personally for that experience because when I went into private practice, fitting patients with hearing technology, it wasn't just about the widget, Dana. It was this hearing technology is a tool that is bridging the gap to better speech, language, hearing, understanding, improving and enhancing your quality of life. Now we're also going to do some subjective best practices, if you will. So I was able to tap into that experience in speech language pathology, implement that into hearing science as a hearing instrument specialist. And I truly do believe that's why we were able to help so many patients and that oral rehabilitation aspect of working with patients. So that kind of got me thinking, and especially when we connected, what does ideal collaboration between hearing care professionals and speech language pathologists actually look like?

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 36:44

So I think the collaboration between the two could be absolutely amazing. So hearing care professionals, they're able to give people that access to the sound, which is such an incredible journey just to be able to hear those sounds. But then we play into the speech too, because we're looking at that total communication. It's not just about the hearing aid itself anymore. It's about someone being able to hear those new sounds, being able to figure out what they're hearing and what they can do with it. It's being able to access their friends again, their family again, being able to go out to eat and be able to hear those sounds and feel like they're part of everything again. That social aspect is huge to be able to feel like you fit in and you can do things and hear people. You're not going out anymore going, oh, did I miss something? Did I not hear that? Oh, what did they say and be embarrassed about it or maybe not be able to participate? But that social aspect too is in there. And as speech, we're able to take those new sounds and turn it into everyday life moments. We're able to help with those listening skills, understanding language, how people and students can function in their classroom, in work, in conversations. And for me, I love this so much because, as both a parent of a child with hearing loss and a speech pathologist, I think there's such a huge opportunity for stronger collaboration between audiologists and speech pathologists. Families need support and not just understanding the technology and receiving those new hearing aids, but understanding how to navigate real life listening, how to build those communication skills, and also how to advocate for either themselves or their children. And I would just love to see more integrated models and be part of that, where the hearing care professionals and the SLPs work together to support that whole child and what all their needs are in communication.

Closing Thoughts And Website

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 38:41

Absolutely. And just the because I do believe, and this is my opinion, this is the opinion of Blaze Delfino and Hearing Matters Podcast, that there is a follow-up bottleneck. And we just, it's the brutal fact that there's more individuals with hearing loss than there are hearing care professionals to help them on their journey to better hearing. And to your point, that cross-collaboration, I mean, you go to any hospital, typically speech language pathologist and audiology, it's all on the same floor, which is great because you have that cross-collaboration. But what about the private practices today who are specializing in pediatric audiology, that are specializing in adult audiology and fitting patients with hearing aids? We are in a day and age where it is more than just the hearing aid. And I remember I specifically had a patient that I just it feels like yesterday that I fit her. So as soon she was fit with hearing aids prior to coming to our practice, and I don't believe real your measurement was done with her, and just the counseling was not the greatest from what I could tell. And when patients would come to me and say I never had X, Y, or Z done, I always took that with a grain of salt because I just let's start with a clean slate. But I will tell you, once we fit her appropriately with custom ear molds, updated technology, real ear measurement, not only objective verification, but the abbreviated profile of hearing aid benefit, implementing some oral rehabilitation, tapping into my background in speech language pathology, Dana, her articulation, her speech actually improved. And so I could hear it because, of course, going to school for speech path, I was like, wow. And her husband even said her speech has improved so much, it's not as slurred. She's pronouncing her S's much better. And that's because she now had greater and improved auditory feedback. So I know that is an N of one, but I would like to hypothesize that there are more patients that happens to than we're talking about.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 41:01

Absolutely. I think that hearing aids are incredibly important, but they're not the finish line. After you get those hearing aids, that's where speech can jump in and really start to show those patients and help them be able to communicate in their everyday life. Now that they can access these sounds, access doesn't mean they can automatically understand it. They're able to access those sounds. So now let's talk about understanding them and being able to communicate back. So that's where ongoing support from a speech pathologist can really help. We can talk about those different strategies. We can talk about awareness, and we can talk about what communication looks like now that you're able to hear those sounds, whether it's in social situations, with your family, with your loved ones, or in a work environment. We can work on the rest of that communication. The audiologists are able to give them those sounds, which is an incredible gift to get those sounds back. But then we need to take the rest of our journey and communication to figure out how to implement the rest of it so that they can take those sounds and live their best life and be able to participate in all those everyday moments.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 42:14

I love that.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 42:33

I think a lot of times when parents are giving any medical information or something might be wrong with the child, the first thing is almost panic sets in. You feel, oh my goodness, are they going to be able to do this? What's going to happen? I think they need to realize that everything will be okay. Take the step back and let's gain that knowledge. And when your child gets those hearing aids, like we talked about, that is just the beginning of the journey. They're gonna go so far once they hear those new sounds, they're going to be able to feel better about themselves. They're gonna be able to participate in school. They're gonna be able to establish those friendships and be able to hear more and be able to participate in everyday life moments that maybe we take for granted.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 43:19

Dana, thank you so much for joining me on the Hearing Matters podcast. You will be joining us on a follow-up episode where we are going to be talking about the collaboration, the ideal collaboration between hearing care professionals and speech language pathologists in a little bit more detail. But Dana, thank you so much for joining me on the Hearing Matters Podcast.

Dana Ann Hawkins, SLP 43:41

Thank you so much for having me. I look forward to continuing this conversation.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS 43:45

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast. Today we had Dana Ann Hawkins, speech language pathologist, share with us her experience with her daughter Emma, getting fit with hearing aids, being diagnosed with hearing loss, and what that journey looks like. For more information, visit Hearing Matters Podcast.com. And until next time, hear life's story.