Skip Navigation LinksPAT Schedule PAT Conference

Schedule PAT

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ SPEAKERS

Friday, May 30th

8:00-8:30 AM
Registration and Light Breakfast

8:30-9:00 AMOpening Welcome and Introductions
9:00-9:50 AM
Keynote Address  (Session 1)

Susan Scollie
Translational Technologies for Pediatric Hearing Aids: Past, Present, and Future
The translational progress made in pediatric hearing aid research has thrived on integrating basic science with engineering against clinical experience... and Pat Stelmachowicz was at her best in the middle of those three things. In this presentation, I will consider three major advances that have changed, fundamentally, how we think about hearing aid fitting, and implications for the future.

9:50-10:00 AMBreak
10:00-10:50 AMSession 2

Kathryn Wiseman
Considerations for pediatric implantation in borderline candidates
Choosing the appropriate audiological intervention – hearing aids or cochlear implants – for children with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss can be challenging, especially if children are audiometrically borderline candidates for implantation. This talk describes evidence for device candidacy for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

10:50-11:00 AMBreak
11:00-11:50 AMSession 3

Karen Munoz
Partnering with Parents to Support Behavior Change and Increase Hearing Aid Use
Auditory experience in early childhood impacts spoken language development. Early access to appropriately programmed hearing aids provides audibility; however, hearing aid use is often inconsistent. Audiologists can partner with parents to understand factors interfering with hearing aid use and support parent behavior change to improve the auditory experience for young children.

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch
1:00-1:50 PMSession 4

Dawna Lewis
Remote Microphone Systems and Communication Access for Children
Hearing instruments alone may not be sufficient to allow communication access for children with hearing loss in complex environments. Children with normal hearing and special listening needs can be negatively impacted in poor acoustic settings. Remote micorphone (RM) systems are desgined to overcome the negative effects of noise, distance, and reverberation and are an important option for speech understanding in complex acoustic environments. This talk will discuss research on personal RM technology for children as it relates to communication access.

1:50-2:00 PMBreak
2:00-2:50 PMSession 5

Tiana Cowan/Lori Leibold/Ryan McCreery
The Children's English/Spanish Speech Recognition Test (ChEgSS)
The Children's English and Spanish Speech Recognition (ChEgSS) test is a computer-based tool for assessing closed-set word recognition in English and Spanish in noise or competing speech. In this course, we review its psychometric properties, evaluate feasibility and reliability in bilingual children, and present normative data.

2:50-3:00 PMBreak
3:00-3:50 PMSession 6

​Clinical Cases with Jessie Patterson, Elizabeth Kelly & Ashley Kaufman
​Clinical Presentations and Management of Congenital Cytomegalovirus
Cytomegalovirus (CMV)​ is one of the leading causes of congenital hearing loss and is often progressive. This presentation will explore case studies of patients with congenital CMV (cCMV), focusing on audiological, vestibular, and medical management. Key insights, including best practices and challenges in medical treatment, will be highlighted.

4:00-6:30 PMPoster SessionPoster Session & Evening Social
Poster presenters will be available until 5:00 PM. Heavy hors d'oeuvres will be provided.

Saturday, May 31st

8:30-9:00 AMLight Breakfast​​​
9:00-9:50 AMSession 7

Kristen Janky
Pediatric Vestibular Loss: Prevalence, Functional Effects and New Assessment Techniques
During this course the prevalence of vestibular loss in children will be discussed, highlighting specific etiologies of vestibular loss. Children with hearing loss are at an increased risk of vestibular loss and the functional effects of having dual sensory impairments (hearing and vestibular loss) will be reviewed. Lastly, new techniques for assessing vestibular involvement will be reviewed.

9:50-10:00 AMBreak
10:00-10:50 AMSession 8

Krystal Werfel
Language and Literacy Acquisition in Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
In this session, I will present information from an ongoing longitudinal study addressing spoken language and literacy acquisition in children who use cochlear implants and/or hearing aids from age 4 to grade 1. Developmental trajectories, as well as predictors of elementary school literacy, will be reported. Clinical implications will be discussed.

10:50-11:00 AMBreak
11:00-11:50 AMSession 9

Carlos Benitez-Barrera
Acoustic Environments for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
This study examines how auditory environments impact language in Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (CDHH). The Speech Accessibility Index (SAI) assesses real-world language access, with preliminary findings highlighting its potential to guide interventions and enhance language outcomes.

12:00-1:00 PMLunch
1:00-1:50 PMSession 10

Nicole Corbin
Speech Perception in Children with Unilateral Hearing Loss
Children with unilateral hearing loss demonstrate challenges in speech perception that are likely to have cascading effects on broader development. This talk will consider the speech perception challenges of children with unilateral hearing loss in the context of neural plasticity and language abilities resulting from atypical auditory input to one ear.

1:50-2:00 PMBreak
2:00-2:50 PMSession 11

Monita Chatterjee
Emotional Prosody Perception and Production by Children with Cochlear Implants
Prosodic cues – particularly voice pitch changes – are not adequately perceived through cochlear implants. In this presentation, I will describe our team's recent work on emotional prosody perception by pediatric cochlear implant recipients, and links between their perception and production of emotional speech.

2:50-3:15 PMClosing ​​
​​

**Breakfast and lunch are provided each day and are included with your registration.