Join us on Saturday, October 8!
Topic: Cochlear Implants of Today with Cochlear Americas
Date: Saturday, October 8, 2022
Where: Online Zoom Meeting
Time: 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. PT
Audience: Open to all for this free event. Please pass along this invite to others!
NOTE: Make sure to note this replaces our typical fourth Saturday of the month meeting.
We had a wonderful presentation and discussion covering the family dynamics and challenges faced with hearing loss. Dr. Jen Anfinson was kind enough to put together and present to our audience with many interesting topics and Q&A.
Please see below to view the full presentation and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
We had a wonderful chapter social gathering this spring to celebrate the CODA movie. Many of those who attended had not seen each other since pre-pandemic so it was a much-needed time together. After some pre-movie good food and appetizers, we all enjoyed a truly enlightening and magical movie. Although the movie does focus on the deaf community, we do hope it will also raise awareness for those with hearing loss.
And a special thank you to our host, Sandy Blake, for allowing us to mess up her home!
If you have any ideas or suggestions for a chapter social gathering, please email us at info@hlaa-la.org.
Everyone who needs assistance and help with their hearing needs will benefit greatly by having a supportive and strong relationship with their hearing care professional.
IDA Institute has put together an informative and fun guide called Partnering for Great Hearing Care. This brand-new animated guide shows a great partnership in action and provides practical tips for both clinicians and clients for how to build a successful partnership, based on four building blocks: build trust, connect as people, be active partners, and invite family and friends.
Those who attended our March chapter meeting enjoyed a great presentation about what is lip reading, how it can help us in noisy situations and training opportunities. And a special thank you to Ed Auer, Ph. D. and Nicole Jordan, Au.D. to take time out of their Saturday morning to present to us.
Some meeting notes to share:
There is a wonderful opportunity to participate in the speech recognition study. To learn more go to https://seehear.us/study/.
You may also reach out Ed Auer, Ph.D., with any questions at eauer@gwu.edu.
Clear masks options to review and purchase:
Watch the presentation below.
Here, My Voice 2: Supporting the Power of Voice of Hard of Hearing People
Are you a cochlear implant or hearing aid user and interested in receiving personalized voice lessons with a professional vocal artist?
USC’s “Here, My Voice” program is looking for adults with hearing loss for the study focusing on improving vocal confidence and joy of self-expression. Participants can choose to work on vocal expressions such as singing and spoken words. The lessons will be held over Zoom or in-person for one hour per week over a 12 week period. No prior music or singing experience is required. Individual voice lessons are provided to participants at no cost to them. If you agree to participate, you will be asked to fill out surveys and be part of individual interviews. Data will be anonymously collected. You will receive a $100 gift card as a token of gratitude for participating. Your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw from the study at any time.
Please contact Juri Hwang by clicking the Learn More! button below or email at jurihwan@usc.edu for more information.
Monday, February 7
Please join The Friends of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital Board of Advisors for a fascinating Open Mind program with Nina Kraus, PhD, author of the groundbreaking new book, OF SOUND MIND: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World.
Dr. Nina Kraus, Northwestern University professor, neuroscientist, and director of the renowned Brainvolts Lab, uses her thirty years’ experience studying the interplay of the brain and sound to show for the first time that the processing of sound drives many of the brain’s core functions. She leads us through a fascinating exploration of sound’s surprisingly unrecognized role in both the healthy and hurting brain and brilliantly makes the case that the sounds of the world around us—and what sounds we’re exposed to throughout our lives—impact the development of our brains, the abilities and weaknesses we develop, and who we are as human beings.
Dr. Kraus is a scientist, inventor, and amateur musician who studies the biology of auditory learning and investigates the neural encoding of speech and music and its plasticity. She holds the Hugh S. Knowles Chair in Audiology at Northwestern University.
Mark Jude Tramo, MD, PhD, will join Dr. Kraus in discussion. Dr. Tramo is the Director of the Institute for Music & Brain Science, Co-Director of the University of California Multi-Campus Music Research Initiative, and both an Associate Clinical Professor of Neurology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor in Ethnomusicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
To watch videos of our past Open Mind programs, please visit www.friendsofnpi.org/open-mind-videos or our YouTube Channel.
Hearing loss is an invisible disability; its true disability is a communication disability. The primary disability of hearing loss is a communication disability rather than just not being able to hear. Struggling to understand conversations with lifelong friends and family, hearing music or professional meetings is a constant stress every day and can lead to depression and social withdrawal.
An essential part of dealing with hearing loss is recognizing that stress is inevitable so rather than avoiding it, learning more effective stress communication skills will be more productive and emotionally satisfying. Come learn new coping skills for keeping depression and anxiety at bay with Dr. Alison Freeman, who has a severe, bilateral sensorineural loss herself.
Big news was announced by AMC that 240 of their locations will now offer open captions for their movies at selected times. Keep in mind this isn’t all their locations but it’s a step in the right direction.
Moviegoers at locations offering open captions will be able to search for showtimes via the AMC website or their mobile app. Interestingly, this announcement comes just before the release of Disney’s Eternals film set to debut on November 5. The movie features deaf actress Lauren Ridloff as the first Marvel deaf superhero.
The hope is as people experience and see more of these captioning options, it will gain momentum for more movies and theaters to offer captioning. Let’s see what happens.
Read the full article.
We had a wonderful presentation and discussion with Katherine Bouton during our September chapter meeting. Learning about Katherine’s personal hearing loss journey and relating that to our own hearing struggles or with family members was so appreciated.
Many of you noted you wanted to attend but couldn’t so our chapter meeting presentation recording with Katherine is available below or on our chapter Youtube channel.
Katherine is a former HLAA board member and an advocate and educator for the deaf and hard of hearing. She is the author of “Smart Hearing“, “Shouting Won’t Help“, and “Living Better with Hearing Loss“. We may explore having a book club discussion with Katherine and her books so if you are interested, just email us at info@hlaa-la.org.
