Jervis Bay Hearing Centre
Call us today!
Vincentia | 02 4441 8886
​Ulladulla | 02 4455 6000
  • Who are we
  • Hearing
    • Free Hearing Checks
    • Test Your Hearing HERE NOW >
      • Adult
      • Child
    • Device Maintenance Videos
    • Tinnitus
    • Communications Training
  • Hearing Aids
    • Overview
    • Choosing Your Device
    • Assistive Listening Devices
    • Hearing Care Products
    • Hearing Funds
    • Workers Compensation
  • Cochlear Implants
  • Hearing News
    • Hearing News Blog
    • FAQS
    • Hearing Research
    • Recruitment
    • Events Photo Gallery
  • Contact Us
  • Recruitment

Better hearing outcomes for coastal kids

21/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

Better Hearing for Coastal kids

"Better Hearing for coastal kids", Jervis Bay Hearing Centre's principal Audiologist, Alison Chiam told the Audiology Australia's National Conference in Sydney today.  

80% of children will suffer at least 1 episode of Otitis Media by the time they reach school and 60% of these children will have an associated hearing loss.  Ms Chiam challenged the existing protocol of watching and waiting for the hearing loss to spontaneously resolve or treat the hearing loss surgically with insertion of grommets.  She has shown a more active approach may get better results.  She has been trialling Eustachian Tube exercises which show startling improvements.  83% of children showed a return to normal hearing in both ears over a 6 week period.   

Ms Chiam, says that early development is vital in kids.80% of children will suffer at least 1 episode of Otitis Media by the time they reach school and 60% of these children will have an associated hearing loss.  Ms Chiam challenged the existing protocol of watching and waiting for the hearing loss to spontaneously resolve or treat the hearing loss surgically with insertion of grommets.  She has shown a more active approach may get better results.  She has been trialling Eustachian Tube exercises which show startling improvements.  83% of children showed a return to normal hearing in both ears over a 6 week period.   .  Unfortunately, it is most common during a child's early learning years.  Hearing well is particularly important for development of language and continuing education.   Prolonged hearing loss can have impacts on a childs ability to process words and separate out different sounds.  So, its important to identify it quickly and help it to resolve as fast as we can.

Adding a non surgical option to our current methods helps kids to manage their own hearing loss at home as well as to continue a positive relationship with water.  When a child has grommets inserted we instruct them to keep their ears dry and to guard against water in their ears.  Our kids and families live by the beach.  Its important that we recognise how important the water is in the life of our kids and parents.  It was when one mother said to me, "I feel anxious when any of my kids are near the water." that I was moved to find another option and to do the research.   Before that, I didn't realise how much pressure open water puts on parents and families.  We are told that it only takes a few seconds for a kid to drown, and this is echoed in the WHO 2016 statistics, "Every year, 30 kids under the age of 5 drown in Australia alone".

In actual fact when I investigated at a deeper level, i found our current protocols are based on results obtained from Indigenous children in central Australia.  However 83% of the Australian population live within 50Km of the coastline and only 3% of our population is Indigenous.  Kids living on the coast have services available to support them, as well as the risk open water poses to a child under 5.  A more active approach could also reduce the need for surgical intervention, reduce the time a child is disadvantaged by a hearing loss for better learning and development outcomes and empower parents and families with a more patient centred care model.


Author

Alison Chiam is Principal Audiologist with the Jervis Bay Hearing Centre.  She has worked in both public and private health systems and as Paediatric and Adult Specialist with Australian Hearing before moving into private practice.  She has written for national and international publications.  Her special interest is in Adult hearing rehabilitation.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    January 2015

    Categories

    All
    Hearing Blog
    Jervis Bay Hearing Centre
    Mollymook Ladies Golf
    Whats Up

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

Medical Referrals

Code of Conduct
Call us today!
Vincentia | 02 4441 8886
​Ulladulla | 02 4455 6000

Picture
Picture