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PEDIATRICS

choice, habilitation, early intervention, school services, etiology of informed parental involvement.
hearing loss and other topics. It’s a lot for parents and caregivers to Research has also consistently shown that deaf children perform
absorb and process and the day of diagnosis is just the beginning. better on speech, language and comprehension testing when they
A large team of childhood hearing professionals is needed to are identified early and receive early intervention with a focus on
provide optimal support and care for newly diagnosed deaf and auditory-oral skills. The resources available to us in San Antonio
hearing impaired infants and children and their families. Fortu- allow us to link mandatory hearing screening, audiologic and med-
nately, San Antonio has dedicated organizations with experienced ical assessments, hearing aids and/or cochlear implants, and appro-
individuals ready to take up the challenge of caring for the needs priate educational paradigms into one comprehensive continuum
of deaf and hearing-impaired children. One of the most unique of care. We can’t cure deafness, but in San Antonio we can make
and important of these organizations is the Sunshine Cottage successfully raising a deaf child in a hearing world a reality.
School for Deaf Children. Note: American Sign Language (ASL) is a beautiful and vibrant
For 71 years San Antonio has been home to Sunshine Cottage language and the language of the Deaf community. ASL is not a
School for Deaf Children. More than just a school, Sunshine Cot- topic of this article but it is always a topic I discuss with the parents
tage provides the full-spectrum of audiology, speech pathology, of deaf children. For some of my patients and families, ASL is the
early childhood intervention, classroom instruction, parent re- best option; for most it is not. I don’t see this as an indictment of
sources and, short of surgery, all that might be needed for the child ASL or the Deaf community but rather an affirmation of parents
with hearing loss. Their audiologists, therapists, teachers and sup- wishing to raise their children in their own way.
port staff are invaluable to the care of deaf and hearing-impaired
children and their families. For those of us who work with these 1. 2015 Annual Data Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI)
children we recognize the tremendous value that Sunshine Cottage Program, https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/ehdi-data2015.
plays in helping these children to listen, speak, read and learn. In html, Accessed 4 May 2018
addition, their parent-infant program empowers caregivers to fully
participate in the habilitation and education of their child. And this Dr. Mark Boston is Surgeon-in-Chief at The Children’s Hos-
is critical because research has shown that much of the hearing-im- pital of San Antonio.
paired child’s educational and social success is based on active and

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