SSM Week 2 (1)

Tuesday
We spent the day with a Speech and Language Therapist, who was telling us about deaf children, and deafness in childhood.

Neonatal screening
One of the interesting bits was the new "Neonatal hearing test" which measures the brainstem response to sound. It does this using small electrodes stuck onto the baby, and by playing a sound into the ear. this basically tells you if the pathway from the ear to the brain is working. If the child does not pass the test, they do not 'FAIL' but the test is repeated, and if the same result appears, they are referred to the audiometrists who assess them further.

Multidisciplinary team
This seems to be an MDT that works, involving, SLT, audiometry, teachers, social workers, psychologists and Doctors. It is quite a community based specialty, and a lot of the consultations and work goes on in the child's home or school environment.

We also got to see some videos of deaf children and noticed that the ones who had had their hearing aids for the longest had the better spoken language skills. In the afternoon, we had a visit to a grou for parents and their deaf babies which was being addressed by a health visitor about baby behaviour and their developmental milestones. The babies were lots of fun, although one toddler did whack me in the face with a toy. I think it was an accident.

Wednesday
We were away at the Cochlear Implant centre getting an introduction to cochlear implants from a medical physicist, then watching the programming of a cochlear implant and finally the ENT Surgeon explained the surgery to us and explained what we would be seeing at the Implant operation on Thursday.