Auburn University Audiology Outreach in Guatemala
Serving the street children of Guatemala City
Day 1 of testing children in Guatemala City!
Hi All!
We spent the day at Los Cedros (school for boys aged 6-14 years). It was a great audiology learning experience! As you can guess, the boys were very noisy; noise was definitely our biggest enemy! We screened 92 children and 14 children failed; of those 14, we fit 3 with hearing aids. The other failures were referred for medical intervention and we hope to re-screen them on our next visit to Guatemala. We were also lucky enough to have a physician on hand that we could refer to for cerumen removal and treatment of middle ear pathology.
The first child we fit had a flat, moderately severe hearing loss. We fit him with chocolate brown ReSound X-plore behind-the-ear hearing aids that matched his hair perfectly! He was able to hear his mother speaking from behind him for the first time! The child and his mother traveled from a rural school to take part in our hearing screening. His mother was SO appreciative of our services and the child hugged everyone!
Our next hearing aid fitting was a 30 year old woman attending the rural school to learn language for the first time. She had a bilateral, severe hearing loss and no language abilities at all- so even the spanish translators were at a loss. We fit her with ReSound Sparx behind-the-ear hearing aids. It was the first time we've ever seen anyone smile when hearing the ReSound calibration tone! She was our biggest challenge of the day due to the language problems, but she was also one of our most rewarding! Her smile made it all worthwhile!
Our last fitting was an 8 year old boy with a unilateral mild hearing loss. We fit him with a ReSound AIR behind-the-ear hearing aid. He was overwhelmed and a little scared about wearing a hearing aid. We read the Spanish version of "Oliver Gets Hearing Aids" book by Dr. Maureen Riski which was a huge help! The teachers and interpreters at the school were wonderful and will continue to work with him the rest of the week. He was definitely our biggest counseling challenge.
Patricia Arzu (Mayor of Guatemala City's wife) was with us this morning, along with a news crew...so we may be on the local news tonight!
One of the highlights of the day was seeing the picture of the anatomy of the ear drawn by one of the young students for us. All the teachers and school personnel were so helpful and so appreciative of our services. We were so impressed with how polite and gracious all the children were. We also had excellent translators who volunteered their time. We couldn't have done it without them!
Tomorrow we will be heading to Las Rosas (girls school for children aged 6-14 years). We are hoping the girls school will be a little more quiet than the boys school!
Be sure to check out the pictures posted of all our hearing aid fittings and screening adventures today! We will update again tomorrow!
Adios!
We spent the day at Los Cedros (school for boys aged 6-14 years). It was a great audiology learning experience! As you can guess, the boys were very noisy; noise was definitely our biggest enemy! We screened 92 children and 14 children failed; of those 14, we fit 3 with hearing aids. The other failures were referred for medical intervention and we hope to re-screen them on our next visit to Guatemala. We were also lucky enough to have a physician on hand that we could refer to for cerumen removal and treatment of middle ear pathology.
The first child we fit had a flat, moderately severe hearing loss. We fit him with chocolate brown ReSound X-plore behind-the-ear hearing aids that matched his hair perfectly! He was able to hear his mother speaking from behind him for the first time! The child and his mother traveled from a rural school to take part in our hearing screening. His mother was SO appreciative of our services and the child hugged everyone!
Our next hearing aid fitting was a 30 year old woman attending the rural school to learn language for the first time. She had a bilateral, severe hearing loss and no language abilities at all- so even the spanish translators were at a loss. We fit her with ReSound Sparx behind-the-ear hearing aids. It was the first time we've ever seen anyone smile when hearing the ReSound calibration tone! She was our biggest challenge of the day due to the language problems, but she was also one of our most rewarding! Her smile made it all worthwhile!
Our last fitting was an 8 year old boy with a unilateral mild hearing loss. We fit him with a ReSound AIR behind-the-ear hearing aid. He was overwhelmed and a little scared about wearing a hearing aid. We read the Spanish version of "Oliver Gets Hearing Aids" book by Dr. Maureen Riski which was a huge help! The teachers and interpreters at the school were wonderful and will continue to work with him the rest of the week. He was definitely our biggest counseling challenge.
Patricia Arzu (Mayor of Guatemala City's wife) was with us this morning, along with a news crew...so we may be on the local news tonight!
One of the highlights of the day was seeing the picture of the anatomy of the ear drawn by one of the young students for us. All the teachers and school personnel were so helpful and so appreciative of our services. We were so impressed with how polite and gracious all the children were. We also had excellent translators who volunteered their time. We couldn't have done it without them!
Tomorrow we will be heading to Las Rosas (girls school for children aged 6-14 years). We are hoping the girls school will be a little more quiet than the boys school!
Be sure to check out the pictures posted of all our hearing aid fittings and screening adventures today! We will update again tomorrow!
Adios!
Comment
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Comment by Dana Brooke on August 12, 2009 at 3:03pm - What a rewarding day you had. It makes what I do seem so trival, and the smiles dwarf my paycheck in value. I'm glad you were able to participate in this adventure, and thankful things are going so well. We'll look forward to your next post. Keep doing the good work. Love, Pops.
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