A Grounded Theory to Explain Parent Prioritization of Hearing Care When Children Have Down Syndrome

The purpose of this study was to describe the decision-making process parents experience when prioritizing hearing care while caring for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down Syndrome. To achieve this, parents of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down Syndrome were recruited, and in-depth interviews were conducted to develop a grounded theory that may explain the decision-making process for how parents prioritize effective hearing care and management. The resulting theory indicated that the higher the extent of professional engagement, parent perception of benefit, parent activation, and engagement of family support, the higher the priority for hearing care and management will be. The results of this study may inform audiologists and other professionals interacting with this sub-population of parents and children regarding how parent needs and challenges may extend beyond those present when children are deaf or hard-of-hearing alone. This may, in turn, inform how person-centered care is delivered to meet these needs

The Academic Needs of the Native Spanish-Speaking English Language Learner under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

The instructional demands and pressures placed on today’s educators are constantly increasing, influenced by national and state learning standards, assessments, and changing student demographics. More specifically, the standards of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) set by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) require academic gains to be made yearly by all students, including those with significant learning hurdles, such as the language acquisition difficulties faced by English Language Learners (ELLs). While the future of the NCLB Act is debatable, the necessity of effective classroom arrangements and instructional methods is indubitable. In addition, because the majority of this ELL population is made up of native Spanish speakers, a mainstream teacher’s knowledge of the Spanish language proves pertinent in order to better differentiate and individualize instruction

Counseling in Audiology: AuD Students’ Perspectives and Experiences

Counseling in audiology is an important aspect of service delivery. How audiologists interact with patients and foster counseling relationships to help patients and families understand and live with hearing loss can impact outcomes of audiological interventions. Currently, variability exists in how graduate training programs are teaching counseling skills, and the extent to which counseling skills development is supported in clinical experiences is unclear. This article seeks to explore the perspectives related to the importance of counseling and counseling training experiences received through clinical instruction of Au.D. students beginning their final year of study, to identify where counseling training might be limited, and to examine how counseling skills might be better supported. Findings revealed that students generally appreciate the importance of counseling in audiology. Data suggest that how students are supported in developing counseling skills appears to be variable and unstructured

Parent Challenges, Perspectives and Experiences Caring for Children Who are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing With Other Disabilities: A Comprehensive Review

Objective: The purpose of this literature review was to explore parent challenges in caring for children who are deaf or hard of hearing with other disabilities and discuss implications for audiologists related to supporting families. Design: A comprehensive literature review was conducted, and through qualitative analysis, emergent themes were identified, and a narrative summary generated. Study sample: Nine research studies were included in this review. Combined, these studies reflect a sample of 111 children, 23 families and 41 parents. Results: Three broad themes were identified, and include parent-reported challenges related to family, professional and child variables. Sub-themes were identified within each broad theme to further describe parent experiences, such as challenges related to decision-making and planning, interprofessional collaboration, and child communication and behaviours. Conclusions: Parents of children with hearing loss and additional disabilities face unique challenges related to family, professional and child variables that could impact how they manage their child’s hearing care

Factors Associated with the Psychosocial Wellbeing Among Parents of Children who are Deaf or Hard-of-hearing

Purpose: To identify factors associated with low psychosocial wellbeing among parents of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Method: A cross sectional survey that included instruments to measure psychological distress, functional impairment, and psychological inflexibility. Two hundred and ninety-six parents completed the survey. Results: Analyses revealed that lower income, presence of additional disabilities, younger child age, and psychological inflexibility were factors associated with low parent psychosocial wellbeing. Conclusions: Parents of younger children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing with low income, have children with additional disabilities, and higher psychological inflexibility may experience lower psychosocial wellbeing. Clinicians serving families may need to provide additional and/or different support for parents in adapting to and managing their child’s hearing loss

Work to save dose: contrasting effective dose rates from radon exposure in workplaces and residences against the backdrop of public and occupational limits

Office workers are exposed to radon while at work and at home. Though there has been a multitude of studies reporting the measurements of radon concentrations and potential lung and effective doses associated with radon and progeny exposure in homes, similar studies on the concentrations and subsequent effective dose rates in the non-mine workplaces are lacking. Additionally, there are few, if any, comparative analyses of radon exposures at more 'typical' workplace with residential exposures within the same county. The purposes of this study were to measure radon concentrations in office and residential spaces in the same county and explore the radiation dose implications. Sixty-five track-etch detectors were deployed in office spaces and 47 were deployed in residences, all within Los Alamos County, New Mexico, USA. The sampling periods for these measurements were generally about three months. The measured concentrations were used to calculate and compare effective dose rates resulting from exposure while at work and at home. Results showed that full-time office workers receive on average about 8 times greater exposure at home than while in the office (2.3 mSv yr-! versus 0.3 mSv yr-!). The estimated effective dose rate for a more homebound person was about 3 mSv yr-!. Estimating effective doses from background radon exposure in the same county as Los Alamos National Laboratory, with thousands of'radiological workers,' highlights interesting contrasts in radiation protection standards that span public and occupational settings. For example, the effective dose rate from background radon exposure in unregulated office spaces ranged up to 1.1 mSv yr-!, which is similar to the 1 mSv yr-! threshold for regulation ofa 'radiological worker,' as defined in the Department of Energy regulations for occupational exposure. Additionally, the estimated average effective dose total of> 3 mSv yf! from radon background exposure in homes stands in contrast to the 0.1 mSv yr-! air pathway effective public dose limit regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency for radioactive air emissions

Predicting Worker Exposure from a Glovebox Leak

It is difficult to predict immediate worker radiological consequences from a hypothetical accident. This is recognized in DOE safety analysis guidance and the reason such guidance does not call for quantitative determinations of such consequences. However, it would be useful to at least have a means of systematically and formally quantifying worker dose to be able to identify the relative risks of various processes and to provide an order-of-magnitude impression of absolute consequences. In this report, we present such a means in the form of a simple calculation model that is easily applied and generates reasonable, qualitative dose predictions. The model contains a scaling parameter whose value was deduced from extensive laboratory ventilation flow rate measurements performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) over the last several years and from recent indoor radioactive contamination dispersion measurements, also at LANL. Application of the model is illustrated with the aid of two example calculations

Hearing Care and Management Priority Among Parents of Children with Down Syndrome: A Grounded Theory

Objective: This study qualitatively explored the factors that influence how parents of children who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down syndrome prioritize hearing care and management and developed an associated theory to explain that priority. Design: Grounded theory was used for the purposes of this qualitative study. Data were collected using in-depth interviews which were analyzed using a three-tiered qualitative coding process. Study Sample: Eighteen mothers of children who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down syndrome participated in this study. Results: The higher the extent of engaged professional support, perception of benefit for child, parent activation, and family engagement, the higher the priority for hearing care and management will likely be among parents of children who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down syndrome. Conclusions: Understanding how parents of children who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down syndrome decide to prioritize hearing care and management has implications for how hearing health providers and others provide care to parents to enhance priority for hearing-related needs

Quick Correct: A Method to Automatically Evaluate Student Work in MS Excel Spreadsheets

The quick correct method allows instructors to easily assess Excel spreadsheet assignments and notifies students immediately if their answers are acceptable. The instructor creates a spread-sheet template for students to complete. To evaluate student answers within the template, the instructor places logic functions (e.g., IF, AND, OR) into a column adjacent to student responses. These “quick correct” formulae are then password protected and hidden from view. If a student enters an incorrect answer while completing the spreadsheet template, the logic function returns an appropriate warning that encourages corrections

Well-being of Parents of Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore factors influencing the well-being of parents who have children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and to compare their experiences to non-clinical samples. Method: A cross-sectional online survey was used to collect data (N = 296). Results: Data analyses revealed the majority of parents of children who are DHH were functioning similarly to or better than the non-clinical samples in our comparison and within the non-clinical range for the included measures. No relationship was found between factors related to child age or timing of services (age at diagnosis, time between diagnosis and amplification fitting, age fit with hearing technology, child’s current age) and parent psychosocial functioning. Conclusions: While most parents are likely to be functioning well, knowing when a parent is experiencing challenges has important implications for clinical practice, including supporting parents in finding solutions when sub-optimal daily intervention practices are occurring. Audiologists can incorporate strategies to identify parents that may be experiencing challenges into their routine practice