Early intervention
In the first few hours of life, most babies born in the United States are given a mandatory hearing test. Quick, painless and inexpensive, the test is key to identifying hearing loss early so children can get the proper treatment, including cochlear implants. Babies can get the implant surgery as early as six months.
“Zero to three is your critical window,” said Jan Larky, the Stanford audiologist who works with the program. “If you give access to sound at the age of three, you’ve missed the boat.”
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Cochlear implants deliver audio information directly to the auditory nerve, circumventing the damaged inner ear. The device has a removable piece on the outside, which contains a transmitter and microphone. It’s attached to the implant using magnets.
The implants don’t magically give someone regular hearing, but eventually help them process sound in a similar way. The children are getting sound information to their brain, but they need speech and language therapy to make sense of it.
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Right now, the team is focusing on perfecting the system and carefully tracking the families’ progress.
Telemedicine has been bounced around as the future of medicine for years. Its spread has been slowed by regulations, license limitations, expensive equipment and poor Internet connections.
With the help of Stanford and eager parents, BabyTalk is exploring the practicality of telemedicine, especially for high-risk, low-income families who live far from specialized medical professionals. In its third year, the team is exploring new avenues for future funding, but they hope it’s just the beginning.
“This thing is scalable,” said Sussman. “I think this is the future.”
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