The Vision Continues
Amanda Womac

At this time last year, the Hearing and Speech Foundation was in the midst of organizational changes that poised us for growth and achieving the founding vision of becoming a world-class research and training facility.

As I sit typing this article, I can look across the street and see that vision becoming a reality. Thanks to the support of our community, we are renovating a building in order to showcase the Verbotonal Method of aural/oral rehabilitation through our new auditory training and therapy programs.

The Verbotonal method, developed in the 1950s by Petar Guberina in Croatia, is a method of aural/oral rehabilitation that uses residual hearing to train the brain to perceive speech. For decades, this system has influenced auditory training and speech correction techniques used with speech and language disorders of hearing-impaired and normal hearing individuals.

Helping Children Hear
Amanda Womac

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, hearing loss is one of the most frequently occurring birth defects and approximately 3 infants per 1,000 are born with moderate, profound or severe hearing loss. If hearing loss is not detected and treated early, it can impede speech, language and cognitive development. Over time, such a delay can lead to significant educational costs and learning difficulties.

Because of the importance of early detection, 36 states have passed legislation that requires hearing screening for newborns, including Tennessee.

Hearing aids can be a big help for children with a hearing loss, but are cost-prohibitive for many families because the average cost for a set of aids is around $3,500. Most insurance companies do not cover the cost of hearing aids, but now there is hope for hearing-impaired children in Tennessee.