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June 27, 2007
Foxy Brown's Hearing Aid and Items Stolen, Misses Probation
Just hours before she was beaten and robbed by a trio of women, trouble-prone rapper Foxy Brown defied a court order and blew off a meeting with her probation officer. Brown was ordered to appear at the probation office today - and was warned that skipping out again could land her in hot water.
"Failure to do so may seriously affect your probation status," warned a letter tacked to Brown's Brooklyn home yesterday after she missed her Friday appointment with her probation officer.
Posted @ 8:16 PM
80% of Patients Stop Discomfort from Tinnitus
It is estimated that between 10 and 17% of the population has suffered tinnitus at some time in their lives, according to a number of international studies.
Tinnitus is understood as the perception of noise in the ears or inside the head although there is no external source of sound, without any vibratory cochlear activity taking place (which occurs when an external noise is produced). Depending on the intensity of the symptom, the patient may have their everyday life affected. In extreme cases the discomforts may make working routines impossible or negatively affect normal daily life.
Posted @ 8:14 PM
Diabetics at Increased Risk of Hearing Loss
Diabetics have twice the risk of developing hearing loss as are nondiabetics, researchers reported here at the American Diabetes Association 67th Scientific Sessions (ADA).
Catherine C. Cowie, PhD, director, diabetes epidemiology program, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, reported data in 5,140 individuals aged 20 to 69 years who underwent audiometric testing from 1999 through 2004 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Posted @ 8:12 PM
Be alert for any signs of child's hearing loss
Hearing is one of our most important senses, and one that has a profound impact on child development. Infants and children with undiagnosed hearing loss may struggle with speech development, so catching hearing problems early is vital.
Lisa Lewis of Wilmington Audiology says that when children with hearing impairment are diagnosed before they are 2 years old, their chance of developing normal speech is greatly increased.
Posted @ 8:11 PM
Finding his words
As a member of the Special Needs Advocacy Board of West Virginia, Ty Strauch would listen to presentations every month. One particular month, the featured speaker was a former student of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in Romney.
“I started crying right in the middle of the speech,” she says in an interview at The Journal office.
Posted @ 8:10 PM
Deaf students left out of Yankee evac plan
Not enough is being done to help students at the Austine School and other members of the deaf community in Brattleboro in the event of an emergency at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, school officials said Tuesday.
Austine students have no idea where the emergency alert system is, an Austine School employee told area emergency preparedness officials Tuesday.
Posted @ 8:08 PM
Deaf kids get their turn at bat with camp
Baseball practice was almost over when Doug Silverstein pointed the kid out to Lou Marino.
"That's him over there, with his mom," the Sherman Oaks Little League coach said. "He wants to learn how to pitch, so work with him a little, will you, Lou? He's a great kid. "Oh, by the way, he's deaf."
In 40 years of helping coach youth baseball, Marino had never worked with a deaf child. How could that be, he wondered.
Posted @ 8:07 PM
Activists fault DCF in deaf mom's case
Talking with her hands, Linda Farrell said she tried to convey the pain in her heart.
But a neighbor enlisted by the state Department of Children and Families and police to communicate in sign language with the deaf woman said Farrell threatened to kill herself if the child-protection agency took her kids.
"I felt angry and frustrated, and I didn't understand what was happening," Farrell said through an interpreter at the offices of Deaf & Hearing Services of Lake & Sumter Counties. "But I didn't say that."
Posted @ 8:06 PM
University experts come up with device for the deaf
Scientists at the University of York have helped a national hearing charity - by designing special phone boxes for dogs.
Experts from the university's department of electronics created the devices to be used during the training of dogs by Hearing Dogs For Deaf People, which has a training centre at Cliffe, near Selby.
The special phone boxes can be connected to ordinary household phones so dogs can learn to respond to the sound and alert deaf people.
Posted @ 8:05 PM
Deacon Patrick Graybill Delights Deaf Track
Using examples that were simple, as well as humorous, practical and deeply profound, Deacon Patrick Graybill delighted both the deaf and the hearing participants of the 2007 Eucharistic Congress deaf track with his encouragement to bring prayer and spirituality into their daily lives.
“Spirituality isn’t just for Sundays,” he proclaimed in his native language, American Sign Language. “It’s real. It’s 24/7. God is in the grocery store. God is here. God is everywhere!”
Posted @ 8:04 PM
The growing importance of learning English
The Northern Ireland branch of The National Deaf Children's Society announces that, because of major renovation work at the Ulster Museum, the annual Young Authors and Artists Prize Day will be held next Wednesday at Belfast City Hall. The ceremony begins at 11am but refreshments will be available from 10.30am.
The old essay competition, as it used to be called, now involves most of the schools and hearing impaired units in the province and has been expanded to include prizes in art as well as writing for the 500 deaf and hearing impaired children in our schools.
Posted @ 8:02 PM
Deaf pilot’s efforts to unite group celebrated
Clyde Smith wanted to be a pilot for as long as he could remember, and he wasn’t going to let the fact that he was deaf stand in the way.
His determination helped him earn his pilot’s license under the tutelage of Don Allen in Jacksonville 17 years ago, and shortly after that, he set out to find out how many others in his situation there were in the country.
Smith, who retired three years ago after 20 years of teaching and coaching at Illinois School for the Deaf, was able to enjoy the fruits of that effort at his home base Thursday during a fly-in social and cookout at Jacksonville Airport sponsored by the Jacksonville Community Center for the Deaf.
Posted @ 8:00 PM
The deaf speak
The president of the Botswana Association of the Deaf (BOAD), Maggie Mapharing says she will raise the issue of communication breakdown at the up-coming conference on 'Deaf Women and HIV/AIDS in Africa' in South Africa.
Mapharing said that when the conference commences this week - June 21 to 23 - in Johannesburg, South Africa she would raise issues that affect them as deaf women in Botswana. She said that deaf women are marginalised because they are not able to communicate effectively with health care providers.
Posted @ 7:59 PM
Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind Renovations
As the architects described it, the Staunton school, which will be the state's residential school for the deaf and blind, will have the latest technology to meet student's needs. Folks got the chance to look at the future of the Virginia school for the deaf and blind in Staunton.
"There's a lot of state of the art equipment, there's a lot of state of the art technology that's available that will fit very nicely here," says Doug Cox, the Assistant Superintendent for Special Education.
Posted @ 7:58 PM
School for the deaf celebrates 40 years with reunion
Severely hard-of-hearing since birth, 19-year-old Serena Trieu has lived life with a few more obstacles than most people. But with the help of technology and the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf, Trieu said she's living a somewhat "normal" and successful life.
She's in her third year at San Jose State University, majoring in computer engineering with plans to minor in math. Typically, the only time she ever has difficulty communicating is over the phone, and sometimes she needs the help of a stenographer at school.
Posted @ 7:57 PM
Deaf community calls for independent agency
Community Services for the Deaf, 211 S. Main St., offers a wide range of social services.
An exact number of potential clients in the Miami Valley is not available, but those advocating for changes in how the agency operates estimate it to be at least 45,000 in Montgomery, Butler, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Preble and Warren counties.
Posted @ 7:56 PM
Pittsfield teacher of the deaf honored
Deborah Holden is a teacher, yet most of her pupils will never hear the sound of her voice.
She and fellow teacher of the deaf Kathy Whelihan work with about 50 children, their families and more than 200 teachers per year in the Pittsfield Public School System.
Holden works with children in Grades 6 through 12, while Whelihan teaches the younger ones.
Posted @ 7:54 PM
Pine Creek High School offers new choice to fill requirement
A northeast Colorado Springs high school will teach American Sign Language as a foreign language starting in August.
The class at Pine Creek High School, in Academy School District 20, will count toward students’ one-year foreign language requirement needed for graduation, just like spoken languages such as Spanish, French or German.
Posted @ 7:52 PM
June 19, 2007
Steroids not gold standard for sudden hearing loss
Although sudden sensorineural hearing loss is typically treated with systemic steroids, little evidence exists to support this or any other treatment, researchers said.
In a meta-analysis and a systematic literature review, both published in the June issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, steroids showed only a trend for benefit compared with placebo (odds ratio 2.47, P=0.08), reported Lorne S. Parnes, M.D., of the University of Western Ontario here, and Anne Elizabeth Conlin, M.D., of the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario.
The wide variety of other treatments studied yielded no significant benefit or had insufficient evidence, they said.
Posted @ 9:55 AM
Hearing loss gene identified
Scientists claim to have discovered the gene responsible for the most common form of hearing loss among white adults.
The discovery is said to be important as it could pave the way towards finding new treatments for hearing loss.
Known as otosclerosis, the condition affects about one in 250 people and is caused by an interaction of genetic and environmental factors.
Posted @ 9:52 AM
Tiny implant shows promise for deaf
An ultra-thin electrode planted in the auditory nerve of the ear may one day offer a superior alternative to cochlear implants for the deaf, researchers say.
A tiny array placed in the auditory nerve of cats transmitted a wide range of sounds to the brain, studies at the University of Michigan`s Kresge Hearing Research Institute found.
Posted @ 9:51 AM
Deaf athlete John set to run for his country
A teenager who lost his hearing when he was a toddler is getting on his marks to sprint for Britain.
John Ruddy, 16, has been selected to run at the European Deaf Athletics Championships in Bulgaria next month.
The teenager has already won the UK title for deaf athletes over 200m and has been awarded 56 medals since he took up the sport at the age of 12.
Posted @ 9:50 AM
Deaf dolphin gets her own chatline
When you think of chatlines, images of scantily-clad girls twirling phone cords round their fingers usually spring to mind.
But one new chatline is not about entertaining bored men – it is designed to help a baby dolphin learn to communicate properly with other bottlenoses.
The unnamed calf was born to a deaf dolphin named Castaway on Monday and although the mother has been vocalising to its baby, experts say that is not enough for it to learn proper 'dolphin-speak'.
Posted @ 9:49 AM
One unstoppable graduate
Vibrant energy sorrounded Hillary Howard on her graduation night. It seemingly always has. The 18-year-old is one of four valedictorians at West Middlesex High School.
Her path to valedictorian is not so surprising: She has excelled academically, being part of the school's Talented and Gifted Program since grade seven. Outside of academics, she played drums through her junior year in the high school band and participated in many school clubs.
Posted @ 9:47 AM
Determined Deaf Man Soars as Pilot
The parents of Stephen Hopson used to say this to him as a child: "You can't become a pilot because you're deaf." This did not deter him.
In February 1996, Stephen Hopson became the first deaf instrument-rated pilot in the world. A license to deaf person to fly in all kinds of weather was an accomplishment that some considered near impossible; the FAA once forbid deaf pilots from earning an instrument rating.
Posted @ 9:46 AM
Deaf DJ Harcor Prepares to Make Some Noise
Following the hit movie It’s All Gone Pete Tong, a real life deaf DJs is about to rock the crowds by feeling the vibrations of the music...
Spencer Collins loves dance music, clubbing and DJing as much as any other aspiring DJ, with only one particular difference – he’s been deaf since birth.
But this hasn’t stopped him being on the verge of his first public gig under the name DJ Harcor. In fact, it may well have helped him get there.
Posted @ 9:45 AM
'For years, I refused to admit I was going deaf'
Stuck in a traffic jam, Jean Lawrence glanced up at her rear view mirror - and the strangest thing happened. "I heard the woman in the car behind me talking," says the 60-year-old, with a laugh.
"I knew I couldn't have; it was impossible. That's when I realised I'd lip read what she said - and my brain had added the sound. So what people had been telling me was right: I was losing my hearing. "For a long time I'd said 'No, no, that's not happening to me'. But that day, in the car, was the moment of truth."
Posted @ 9:44 AM
Deaf-mute but still a hero
A deaf and mute youth as a lead actor in a film? It sounds unreal since this has probably never happened in India's 94-year-old film industry.
But in a forthcoming Kannada movie, Snehanjali , 25-year-old Dhruv, congenitally impaired of speech and hearing abilities, has pulled off the unimaginable feat of acting in a lead role. Dhruv has lip-synced dialogues and songs with such ease and dexterity that viewers fail to realise that he has never spoken or heard a sound in his entire life.
Posted @ 9:44 AM
Deaf Driver? Prove It
David and Mary Cunningham have been deaf for their entire lives, have been driving for more than 40 years and have never had trouble renewing their licenses.
That all changed last week when Mary went to get her license renewed at the Baker's Basin Motor Vehicle Commission in Lawrence. After years of writing on the forms she was deaf and renewing for years with no problems, Mary learned she would need to pay for a doctor's visit proving she was indeed deaf before the MVC would renew her license.
Posted @ 9:43 AM
Artworks bring delight to deaf children
Students of Bhairahawa government school for deaf children got some respite from their daily monotony at the school after the mounting of 16 sparkling mosaic pictures on the walls of its premises.
These unique multicoloured artworks generated huge excitement amongst the school's 153 pupils.
The artworks were sponsored by individual donors overseas and handmade by young victims of child trafficking who have been rescued from bonded labour in Indian circuses by Esther Benjamins Trust Nepal (EBTN), an INGO working in the area of child trafficking.
Posted @ 9:42 AM
No child has ever been more loved
My sister Belle's wee granddaughter had been seriously ill for months with a brain tumour and died last Friday, a week before her first birthday. The funeral service was held in Stormont Presbyterian Church, in Belfast, on Monday and Evelyn and I were fortunate in being able to make a last minute booking with one of our top interpreters.
The church was packed with family and friends and many were in tears. The little white coffin was carried in by the father and laid at the front. The minister spoke movingly of the way the whole church, and many outsiders too, had felt involved with the wee mite's struggles. "No child has ever been more loved than little Sophia", he told us.
Posted @ 9:41 AM
Maryland School for the Deaf celebrates commencement
Thirty-three students graduated from the Maryland School for the Deaf at a graduation ceremony on Saturday.
The ceremony included speeches from seniors Zachary Ennis and Michelle Lapides. The class valedictorian was Noe Turcios.
Posted @ 9:41 AM
Sexual assault charges dropped against deaf man
Prosecutors have dropped sexual assault charges in the case of a city man who was deemed mentally competent to stand trial, despite not being able to communicate in any full language.
Victor Laporte, 33, of 741B W. Hollis St., still faces a single felony child-endangerment charge, alleging he propositioned a 14-year-old baby sitter in 2003.
Posted @ 9:40 AM
3 Arrested, Charged In Deaf Man's Death
Three men were recently charged in connection with the 2006 death of a 22-year-old deaf man outside of a Yulee bowling alley.
Nassau County investigators have determined the death of Bruce Doss was the result of traumatic asphyxia with restrained stress as a contributory condition after being held down.
Posted @ 9:39 AM
Tireless director of deaf studies earns community service award
Judy Freedman Fask’s introduction to her life’s work came right after high school when she was working as a young teacher’s aide in a Worcester classroom.
“It just happened that the kids were deaf,” she says. “I loved the language, I loved the kids, I loved the interaction. So I started taking sign language classes.”
Fask’s passion and enthusiasm for her work is as infectious as her ever-present smile — which is her trademark sign-off on e-mails.
Posted @ 9:38 AM
New technology allows hearing-impaired teens to enjoy movie theaters
Like most teens, 14-year-old Kara Mongell of North Andover thought "Spiderman 3" was pretty cool. So did her friends from across the North Shore and the Merrimack Valley who meet once a month to do something fun.
But unlike most teens, Kara and her friends are deaf. Most of them wear powerful hearing aids to help them hear. But hearing aids can only do so much.
Posted @ 9:37 AM
Deaf artist headed for D.C.
Jose Prado's "Family B-B-Q" is taking him to a congressional reception.
Fifth-grader Jose Prado, who is deaf, is one of 13 students nationwide selected to help open the Congressional Gallery Exhibit at Union Station Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Fifth-grader Jose Prado, who is deaf, is one of 13 students nationwide selected to help open the Congressional Gallery Exhibit at Union Station Gallery in Washington, D.C. Above, he holds a copy of his artwork, which he titled "Family B-B-Q." Jose is the son of Silviano and Solorzano Prado.
Posted @ 9:37 AM
A Sign of the Times
American Sign Language (ASL) is arguably the 4th most commonly used language in the United States. Enrollment in ASL classes is greater than ever, with many high schools and colleges allowing ASL to satisfy foreign language requirements. Kingwood College offers both credit and non-credit options.
There is not an official statistic on how many persons with hearing loss or deafness live in this country; the U.S. Census Bureau stopped including deaf demographics in 1930. Individual surveys are rarely conducted, and they are not done on a large enough scale, however, the National Center for Health Statistics reported in 1991 that there were as many as "4.81 million deaf and hard of hearing people in America."
Posted @ 9:33 AM