Children as young as 12 months old, with profound hearing loss, are benefiting from cochlear implant surgery.
What is the Auditory Consultant Resource Network?
The Auditory Consultant Resource Network (ACRN) is a comprehensive educational outreach program that is focused on addressing the needs of educational systems and clinical programs serving children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This outreach program was established to assist school districts, clinics and schools for the deaf in dealing with the impact that hearing technology advances have had on current practices and models for educating children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The ACRN is part of the many innovative services that are offered by the Lied Learning and Technology Center for Childhood Deafness and Vision Disorders (LLTC) at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Over the past 30 years, the Hospital has made a strong commitment to the development of state-of-the-art services that will enhance educational programs for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. It believes in honoring the unique nature and needs of children. Because of this, its work encompasses serving individuals who use a range of communication modalities and are enrolled in a variety of educational settings. The LLTC's primary focus is on developing strong local, regional and national networks to support children who are deaf or hard of hearing by using distance technology and developing evidence-based clinical and educational practices with one purpose in mind: to enable children who are deaf or hard of hearing reach their full potential.
The Auditory Consultant Resource Network is led by Catherine C. Carotta, Ed.D. and Mary E. Koch, M.A. who together bring a strong foundation of experience and leadership in the field of auditory education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Members of the Lied Learning and Technology Center's staff also serve as program mentors and trainers. This multi-disciplinary team includes audiologists, student assessment specialists, deaf educators, speech-language pathologists, counselors, and home-based early interventionists.
Mary Koch has been working with children with cochlear implants since 1983. Receiving her Masters in Education of the Deaf from Gallaudet University, she has a strong background in signed-based methodologies as well as auditory strategies. She served as Clinical Director at the Helen Beebe Speech and Hearing Center, having been mentored by both Daniel Ling and Helen Beebe, pioneers in Auditory-Verbal therapy. She began the cochlear implant rehabilitation program at The Listening Center at Johns Hopkins and is the author of Bringing Sound to Life: Principles and Practices of Cochlear Implant Rehabilitation; Word Associations for Syllable Perception, and Making the Connection: A Workbook for Adolescents and Adults with Cochlear Implants.
Dr. Catherine Carotta is the Associate Director of the LLTC. She is a licensed speech-language pathologist with many years of experience in the assessment and education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing using sign and spoken language modalities. Dr. Carotta has worked in public/private school settings, hospital, and university-based clinical programs. She has worked with children with cochlear implants since 1985 where she first served as a speech pathologist on Indiana University's Cochlear Implant Team at Riley Children's Hospital. She served as the Education Director at Louisville Deaf Oral School, a dual-track school offering oral and signed education to children from birth to eight years of age. With a doctorate in leadership education, she has actively worked to create learning organizations using current leadership models. She has created a teacher renewal model entitled The Work of Your Life and has authored the work, Sustaining the Spirit to Teach, Lead, Serve. She is actively involved in providing consultation to organizations regarding leadership, personal renewal and services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
What is the Auditory Consultant Resource Network's mission?
The Auditory Consultant Resource Network's (ACRN) mission is to provide comprehensive training resources in order to optimize the listening and language skills of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The ACRN provides onsite training and program development that capitalizes on effective hearing technology, innovative educational methodology, sound leadership models, and state-of-the-art distance technology.
What is the Auditory Consultant Resource Network's vision?
The ACRN's vision is for all clinical and educational programs serving children who are deaf or hard of hearing to have access to training resources, systematic program analysis and development, effective leadership practices for engaging in change, and professional mentoring designed to optimize the listening and language skills of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Why was the Auditory Consultant Resource Network instituted?
- In the past decade, the education of deaf and hard of hearing children has been dramatically impacted by new technology and legislation. In order to optimize the benefit from these changes, schools need training resources that are accessible, affordable, and designed to meet the unique needs of each program.
- Program assessment and strategic program development are needed to determine the extent to which educational programs are meeting the needs of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Training resources and professional expertise need to be made available to rural and low incidence programs.
- Collaborations need to be fostered between clinical and education settings. Parents receiving services from hearing specialists in clinical and hospital settings need to be equipped to interpret what their child's needs are and communicate them to their educational systems.
- Graduate training programs need to provide information and strategies for meeting the current educational expectations for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Teachers, speech-language pathologists, and interpreters need access to training that addresses methods for working with children using current hearing technology, FM systems, and cochlear implants.
- Guidelines for differentiating instruction for children with varying listening profiles, communication access, and ability levels are needed.
- Assessment and educational training addressing the individual needs of children who are deaf or hard of hearing children who have language delays and learning differences is needed.
- The establishment of effective parent and clinical-educational partnership models is needed in order for families and service providers to assist their children in reaching optimal outcomes.
- Who does the Auditory Consultant Resource Network serve?
- Public and Private Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Programs
- Day and Residential Schools for Deaf Students
- Mainstream Educational Programs
- Clinical Programs
- Special Education Directors
- Deaf and Hard-Of-Hearing Program Administrators
- Families of Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
- Home-Based Early Interventionists
- Family Service Coordinators
- Teachers of the Deaf
- Speech-Language Pathologists
- Audiologists
- Interpreters
- Instructional Assistants/Communication Facilitators
- What are the Auditory Consultant Network Resource services?
- Auditory Transition Initiative (ATI) Project
- Audiologic Evaluation
- Classroom Hearing Technology Consultations
- Student Multidisciplinary Assessments
- Communication Modality Evaluations
- Classroom-Based Assessments
- School District Consultations
- Mentoring for Interpreters Serving Cochlear Implant Students
- Virtual Observations of Multidisciplinary Assessments
- Virtual Observations of Therapy Sessions
- Webstreaming Cochlear Implant Visits: Mapping, Therapy, Evaluations
- Virtual Home Visits
- Home-Based Early Interventionist Mentoring
- Parent Training Workshops
- Parent/Educator Resource Library
- Team Development/Leadership Training Seminars
- Educator Renewal Seminars
- Five-day Summer Institutes/Teleconference for Professionals and Parents
- Auditory Learning Resource Website
A variety of professional consulting services will be provided by the Network. Because of recent technological advances, many schools are requesting support to enhance their auditory learning opportunities for children. The first service listed below, the Auditory Transition Initiative Project, was created in response to this need. It is described in greater detail in the sections that follow.
What is Boys Town National Research Hospital?
Since opening in 1977, the work of the Boys Town National Research Hospital has been singularly focused on improving the lives of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Highly trained physicians and other clinicians collaborate to provide state-of-the-art diagnosis and treatment for children so they may communicate with their families and the world around them. Therapists and educators use innovative intervention methods to help deaf and hard of hearing children develop the language skills necessary to reach their full academic potential. Each year thousands of children with hearing loss come to the Hospital from across the United States for care. Countless others are touched by advances in diagnosis and treatment, parent training, education programs and world-class research carried out by the Hospital's educators, clinicians, physicians, and research scientists.
What is The Lied Learning and Technology Center for Childhood Deafness and Vision Disorders?
The Lied Learning and Technology Center for Childhood Deafness and Vision Disorders is a not-for-profit 501(c) (3) corporation dedicated to improving the lives of children who are deaf or hard of hearing by developing and applying new rehabilitative and educational technology. The Lied Learning and Technology Center enhances the work of the Boys Town National Research Hospital through state-of-the-art facilities for education, service and the distribution of up-to-date information to parents, professionals, and school systems. The Center's staff is comprised of audiologists, cochlear implant specialists, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, educators of the deaf, special education teachers, parent-infant specialists, counselors, physicians, a genetic counselor, sign language specialists, interpreters, leadership education specialists and research scientists.
- What Services are provided by the Lied Learning and Technology Center for Childhood Deafness?
- Cochlear Implant Evaluation Team
- School District Consultation on Models for Deaf/HH Education
- Home-Based Early Intervention
- Deaf Educator Contract Services for Schools
- Educational Interpreter Performance Assessments
- Center-Based Services for Childhood Apraxia
- Center and School-Based Speech-Language Services
- Center and School-Based Counseling Services
- Multidisciplinary Student Evaluations
- Communication Modality Assessments
- Classroom-Based Assessments
Auditory Transition Initiative
What is the Auditory Transition Initiative (ATI) project?
The Auditory Transition Initiative (ATI) project is a comprehensive school consultation program offered through the ACRN. It is designed to assist educational systems serving children who are deaf or hard of hearing to determine how they can best meet the needs of these students. ATI is primarily focused on providing comprehensive training resources to school-based professionals in order to optimize the listening and language skills of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Onsite program assessment, program development, and training seminars are provided related to the program's needs.
- The consultation process involves a two-to-three year commitment that includes:
- Systematic self study examining the school's current services and staff
- Analysis of program strengths, needs, opportunities, and challenges
- Strategic plan design process
- Activation of the strategic plan through ongoing seminars, professional coaching, leadership advisement.
- Distance mentoring
- What are the Auditory Transition Initiative's program components?
- Classroom Communication
- Student Assessment Protocols
- Management of Auditory Environment
- Auditory Assessment and Troubleshooting
- Auditory Transition Strategies
- Teacher Communication Style and Strategies
- Expressive Communication Expectations
- Social/Emotional Communication and Development
- Staff Development
- Curriculum Selection/Implementation
- Developmentally Appropriate Practices
- Physical Environment
- Team Profile/Team Dynamics
1. Program Assessment
A comprehensive Self Study Profile is completed by administrators, educators, and the ATI team. The Self Study Profile includes assessment of the following areas:
2. Program Profile
The ATI team spends 3 - 5 days meeting with administrators and staff, as well as observing classroom and therapy sessions. A program profile is developed from the self-study, observations, and discussions with team members. The assessment profile clearly delineates the strengths, needs, opportunities, and challenges facing the program.
3. Strategic Plan The strategic plan is the road map for each program's Auditory Transition. Following the development of program assessment profile, the Auditory Transition team meets with administrators and educational staff to: 1) determine agreement on the priority needs; 2) identify causal factors contributing to the needs; 3) establish goals and objectives for addressing these needs; 4) delineate action steps needed to accomplish goals; 5) establish timelines for development; and 6) construct a plan for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the plan.
4. Training Seminars Auditory Transition Initiative seminars provide workshops on: 1) principles and strategies for optimizing auditory learning in both classroom settings and therapy sessions; 2) effective team development; 3) student assessment; 4) developmentally-appropriate educational practices; 5) educational leadership; and 6) teacher renewal. The seminars range from half-day overviews, to three day in-depth training workshops. The seminars are offered in a stand-alone context; apart from the other services of the ATI. The seminars also are offered following the program assessment portion of the ATI and can be customized to meet the needs of the individual program. Programs and organizations may also request a presentation focusing on a particular topic related to auditory learning, team development, or educator renewal.
5. Educational Coaching Following participation in program assessment and training workshops, the ATI team provides coaching of teachers, speech-language pathologists, educational audiologists, interpreters and classroom assistants in implementing strategies for auditory learning. An ATI coach works alongside a team member demonstrating strategies, assisting in educational planning, and providing feedback based on the needs of the individual.
6. Leadership Advisement Throughout the assessment process and following the strategic plan formulation, the ATI team provides leadership advisement to program administrators. This input will assist them in designing effective models, and orchestrating an effective change process, and cultivating a strong educational leadership team. An ATI leadership specialist works alongside the administrator to evaluate the effectiveness of the change process and to offer current resources in leadership to support the administrator's role.
7. Distance Mentoring Through the use of state-of-the-art web-based video cameras, the ATI team is able to connect classroom teachers and speech-language pathologists directly with experts in the field of auditory communication development. Through cameras placed in classrooms and/or therapy rooms, the mentors are able to observe either group or individual instruction in real time. The mentors provide prompts and suggestions through a wireless receiver worn by the teacher or speech-language pathologist. Following the distance coaching session, the teacher/speech-language pathologist is able to have a face-to-face web meeting with the mentor to discuss what took place. This unique distance mentoring enables programs to utilize the expertise of highly skilled professionals without the added time and expense of scheduling multiple onsite consultations. In addition, distance mentoring can be scheduled promptly in response to challenges that arise during the school year. (Distance mentoring is only available to programs who have participated in program assessment, the ATI seminars, and onsite professional coaching.)
Contact Information:
Catherine C. Carotta Ed.D. SLP
Associate Director
Center for Childhood Deafness
Lied Learning and Technology Center
Boys Town National Research Hospital
carottac@boystown.org
(402) 452-5032 (v/tty)