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April 25, 2007
What'd you say?
"Would you repeat that?" It is Gene Ambroson's latest mantra.
"Say again?" the 59-year-old baby boomer adds as he stares intently at your face, a stare that could unnerve someone not familiar with the severe hearing loss that is afflicting Ambroson and could affect a few million more boomers in the coming years. More about that stare later.
The Associated Press reported recently that as many as 50 million Americans could be affected by impaired hearing by mid-century. Inexorably, this could affect one out of every six Americans.
Posted @ 5:26 AM
Business booming because booms can't be heard
Business is booming at Hearing Specialists PC, audiologist Collette Hadden said, thanks in large part to the aging baby boomer population. "What'd you say?" has become the favorite catch phrase of Siouxlanders who grew up saying "far out, man!" and "one toke over the line" in their earlier days.
"We're seeing more and more of them all the time," Hadden said of her 14-year-old clinic at 4509 Stone Ave. An audiologist since 1988, with a master's in audiology from the University of South Dakota.
Posted @ 5:26 AM
Students help classmate with sign language spelling bee
Jesse Cobb didn’t have much to say about his classmates’ help Tuesday, except deciding that it was “cool.”
His buddy Kaleb Brown, though, was up to the “challenge” of spelling a different way to help Jesse get ready for a state spelling bee next week.
“Challenge” was one of the words Kaleb spelled correctly as he and other Jefferson Elementary School fifth graders used sign language to spell. It was all to help Jesse and another hearing-impaired student, Brandon Tingley, qualify for next week’s Statewide Deaf Fingerspelling Bee in Springfield.
Posted @ 5:25 AM
Early Detection of Hearing Loss and Timely Intervention Help Ensure Healthy Infant Development
Imagine that you're the proud parent of a newborn baby. He or she is beautiful, of course. But as physicians run the gamut of tests, they determine your newborn is deaf or has a serious hearing loss. If you're like most parents, you're numb, overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed. In 90 percent of cases, deaf children are born to hearing parents, making the deafness even more difficult for parents to understand.
Posted @ 5:23 AM
The Latest Innovation in Open Fit Hearing Aids: Speaker-in-the-Ear Hearing Aids
Currently, there is a trend in the hearing aid industry toward smaller and more discreet hearing aids, including the recent development of open fit hearing aids (also known as open ear hearing aids). Open fit hearing aids have one major limitation, however; they are not appropriate for many people with a more severe hearing loss and are best used by those with high frequency hearing loss and normal low frequency hearing.
This means that those with severe hearing loss inquiring about this new technology may have either been steered toward more traditional hearing aids (which also have their benefits) or been improperly fitted with open fit hearing aids. However, a recent modification to open fit hearing aids, known as speaker-in-the-ear (SIE) hearing aids, can make these nearly invisible hearing aids available to people with more severe hearing loss.
Posted @ 5:20 AM
NFL prospect Anderson takes lead from deaf educator dad
Jamaal Anderson's relatives can be forgiven for talking with their hands full. When the family gathers for dinner, conversation flies in two ways — verbally and in American Sign Language. A little barbecue sauce flavors the meal, lingers on the fingers and adds zest to the joking and debating.
Anderson, 21, is one of the top-rated defensive ends in the NFL draft, which commences Saturday in New York. His family and friends will gather at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock to celebrate the dawn of his pro career.
Posted @ 5:19 AM
Deaf ear to ADHD
Thousands of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorders may have a common hearing disorder, a Perth audiologist says.
The claim adds to growing concern that too many children are being diagnosed with ADHD when they have other health problems - or are just simply a handful for parents and teachers.
Posted @ 5:17 AM
Wright to be only deaf inmate in Pierre
Daphne Wright, spared a death sentence by a Minnehaha County jury, soon will join five other women serving life without parole in the South Dakota Women's Prison in Pierre.
Wright, 43, is deaf. While state Corrections Department officials say they'll make accommodations for that, in most respects the Sioux Falls woman will be treated the same as the other lifers and for the most part, the same as the other 320 or so inmates in the prison at the east edge of the capital city.
Posted @ 5:16 AM
She's a good listener. So what if she's deaf?
Sybille Ulrike always knew she had a gift for communication. Even as a child, her friends came to her with their problems and asked for her advice. They knew she'd give them a sympathetic ear.
"I'm a good listener," she explains.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Deaf instructor teaches the culture of sign language
Steve Miller smiled as he stood before a small group of students at the South Lake County Resource Center in Crown Point, waiting patiently for a response to his question.
The classroom was quiet, but Miller had his answer. His smile broadened, and he gave his class a thumbs up. Yet no words were exchanged.
Posted @ 5:13 AM
Jury gives deaf woman life prison sentence
Jurors have spared a deaf woman's life and instead sentenced her to life in prison without parole for killing an acquaintance and cutting up her body with a chain saw.
The same jurors convicted Daphne Wright, 43, last week of kidnapping and murdering Darlene VanderGiesen, 42, another deaf woman from Sioux Falls, in February 2006.
Wright smiled after the verdict was read.
Posted @ 5:13 AM
Wright Sentence: Deaf Reaction Mixed
The day after the jury sentenced Daphne Wright to life in prison, leaders in the local deaf community have mixed feelings.
The jury unanimously decided Wright had a depraved mind when she killed Darlene VanderGiesen. But not all the jurors could agree to the death penalty.
Deaf leaders had hoped they would.
Posted @ 5:12 AM
Deaf woman learns salsa
DaNisha Terrell sways and dips while she practices salsa, twisting and turning to show off what she's learned.
Even more impressive than her dance moves is the fact that she does them all without being able to hear the music.
Posted @ 5:11 AM
Pulitzer nomination opens window on deaf community
Even being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in drama made Luane Davis Haggerty "amazed, speechless and breathless."
So, imagine how the Henrietta woman felt when she started getting periodic e-mails from the selection committee saying that her script for Windows of the Soul was still in the running.
Posted @ 5:10 AM
RGB commissions include new school for deaf
Architectural, engineering and interior design firm RGB today announced it has won commissions to help design a school for the deaf, an operations center for the R.I. Public Transit Authority and the renovation of a Providence high school.
Posted @ 5:09 AM
Facility for deaf fears its own lease dispute
The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation isn't the only nonprofit that faces an uncertain future because of a 99-year lease the city now says is invalid.
Next door, the Center for Hearing and Speech shares a building with the Harris County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority on city property leased for 99 years in 1965. The building sits on a prime 3-acre tract at the corner of West Dallas and Shepherd.
Posted @ 5:08 AM