At Keck Medicine of USC, a close relationship between the clinical and research arms of the hearing program strengthens the breadth and depth of the services offered. We provide comprehensive case management of children and adults with hearing loss, incorporating diagnostic, medical, (re)habilitative and educational issues into the treatment plan. We recognize that rehabilitation needs and goals should be revisited and updated at each developmental stage.
Habilitation of young children with hearing loss includes fitting with hearing aids or implantable sensory devices, as indicated, and linking the child and family to early intervention services. At the USC Caruso Family Center, audiologists and speech-language pathologists specialize in working with children with hearing loss. An educational specialist supports educational planning, working with families to help them understand the impact of hearing loss on their child’s language and learning needs.
It is important for older adults who experience presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, to have a baseline hearing test to determine the cause of the hearing loss and track any changes in hearing over time. At Keck Medicine of USC, our health-care providers help patients learn how to establish good care of their hearing. Patients can develop a longitudinal relationship with otolaryngologists and audiologists at our medical center for seamless hearing care.
Physicians and audiologists at the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery offer the most advanced sensory technology to patients with hearing loss, including the newest hearing aids, cochlear implants and osseo-integrated hearing devices. Our audiologists are experienced in programming all current hearing technologies, and work with patients to determine the option that best fits their needs, budget and capabilities.
In 2013, health-care providers from the USC Caruso Family Center and Keck Medicine of USC developed a summer literacy program “Come Read With Me at USC.” This program provides intensive instruction in early reading and writing skills for preschool- and school-aged children with hearing loss who come from families in which Spanish is the primary language of at least one parent in the home.
![](https://keckzine.keckmedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/12/4_articleinset_med-860x535.jpg")
Figure 1 – Children attend 36 hours of individualized instruction in the Come Read With Me at USC program at Keck Medicine of USC.
Children enrolled in the program use hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. However, due to their hearing loss, they remain at a greater risk for language, reading and writing delays compared to their hearing counterparts. Furthermore, they face the additional complexity of learning to navigate between two languages, one spoken at home and the other spoken at school.
In “Come Read With Me at USC”, children participate in 36 hours of small-group instruction led by certified teachers of the deaf at the USC Caruso Family Center (Figure 1). Their parents participate in 12 hours of adult learning led by a bilingual teacher of the deaf, focusing on the importance of shared reading and writing experiences in the home. Effective strategies for implementing reading and writing experiences are modeled and rehearsed during the adult learning sessions that parents can then use with their own children.
Additionally, “Come Read With Me at USC” supports the educational community in Southern California, including teachers of the deaf, speech-language pathologists and early interventionists, by offering 30 hours of professional development to transform teaching practices related to reading and writing instruction for children with hearing loss. Professionals who teach the small group instruction in the summer program receive daily classroom coaching and mentoring during the three-week (36-hour) summer intervention that they lead.
Children who have participated in the program are excited about reading and writing. Many show large gains in their spoken English language skills over subsequent years of program participation — they even ask when they will come back for another summer to read. Parents report being more engaged in reading and writing activities with children at home. They partner with other parents to share ideas.
In addition to the active clinical activities for hearing (re)habilitation, there are several ongoing research projects in which some patients participate. Many children who receive services at the USC Caruso Family Center are participating in the NIH-funded Childhood Development after Cochlear Implantation Study, which has tracked outcomes of these children over the last 14 years. Another NIH-funded study underway is a Phase I clinical trial examining the safety and feasibility of auditory brainstem implants (ABIs) in children (NCT02102256). This clinical trial is being conducted as part of a collaborative effort through the Los Angeles Pediatric ABI Team, comprised of members from Keck Medicine of USC, Huntington Research Institutes and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
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