She sees the light on a child’s face as its nerves soothe with the sound of a 2000 htz click.

It’s the first sign that a healthy baby can hear sounds and noises.

“If the nerve is intact, what it’s looking for is a wave form,” Brady said. “If so, the machine will give me a pass.”

Brady is responsible for testing all local babies before they leave the hospital as per a 1999 state mandate.

“You’ve got a child that usually didn’t get identified until 2 or 3,” Brady said. “Now with the state mandating newborn screening, our goal is to identify these children by 3 months.”

In doing so, she’ll test a baby’s hearing and determine whether or not the child needs hearing assistance.

“Now I know that at 3 months of age, she’s getting the input, she will get speech intervention probably starting in a year and she will develop probably pretty much normal speech,” Brady said. “She’ll be mainstreamed in school and she’ll be a normal, hearing little kid, but she’ll just have hearing aids.”

At 3e months Savannah Bernhardt needed hearing aids, and Brady helped fit the child as early as possible.

Bernhardt was born with hearing loss.

Immediately, mother Brandee and father Paul took the child to Chicago’s Loyola Hospital for further work.

Loyola placed tubes in Savannah’s ears at 3 months and then further tested the baby girl for a diagnostic evaluation; but, Loyola hospital was too far from their home, so they took their daughter to the local audiologist.

“I fit her with hearing aids and I’ll probably be seeing her every 4-6 weeks,” Brady said. “As she’s growing, her ear molds keep getting loose and she’ll have to have new ear molds. We’re already working on a second set.”

The hearing aids look unlike what many consider to be the more fashionable, discreet, in-the-ear devices.

They’re somewhat unwieldy and external, but they can also be hooked up directly to a teacher’s microphone to help bridge Savannah’s physical handicap.

Brady first took a mold of the then three month old and shipped it off to an external company to fit the aids. The company then builds sonic the devices electronically appropriated to Savannah’s hearing loss.

“She just squirts it into her ear and ... after it sets she pulls it out,” mother Brandee Bernhardt said, offering glowing praise of the local audiologist. “She’s been really nice. I didn’t know a lot about hearing aids and she takes the time and explains really well and gave us ideas (such as toupee tape) to keep the hearing aids on real well.”

While most of the groundwork has already been laid for young Savannah, the Bernhardts still have to take their child to the audiologist every two to three weeks to fit for new hearing aids and make sure the baby’s hearing develops as it should.

Which, apparently, is going quite well.

“She’s a lot happier and she smiles a lot and recognizes people when they talk to her,” Bernhardt said. “Before, it didn’t matter what kind of noise, she would never even jump, now she’s really alert.”

By Casey Toner
http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=58&ArticleID=18339&TM=36909.52