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Sound Support: U-M program helps Michigan families navigate new world of hearing

AFTER BEING DIAGNOSED AS DEAF
AND RECEIVING A COCHLEAR IMPLANT
RHYS BEGAN HIS HEARING JOURNEY

[ambient sounds, “Yay!” applause, laughter, “Good job!”]

U-M’S SOUND SUPPORT PROGRAM
HAS BEEN HELPING HIM ADJUST
AND GETTING THE ASSISTANCE HE
NEEDS EVERY STEP OF THE WAY

[MITTEN – Traverse City]

JOSH CRAKER & JAYMIE HATT
RHYS’S PARENTS

:22
Josh Craker, Rhys’ father
He was diagnosed a couple of times with, “Oh, he can hear maybe out of one ear, but not the other one.” And then we had another test…

Jaymie Hatt, Rhys’ mother
…and he pulled us in a room and she started to cry. The nurse started crying, and broke the news to us.

Rhys
This is a cochlear implant.

RHYS IS NOW 1O YEARS OLD

Rhys
Ok, I ran out of breath.

Jaymie Hatt
U-M had it set up for us. It was wonderful. They kind of said, “Here’s the steps we take. This is how often you’ll have to come down. These are the things that we’re going to do. He’ll be in a hearing booth for one hour for one appointment and then he’ll see Kelly.”

Rhys
Kelly Starr, I’ve known her since I was a baby.

Kelly Starr, Speech-Language Pathologist
Reese is a patient that I’ve worked with since the start of his journey at the University of Michigan. I work with children who are deaf and hard of hearing and teaching them to listen and talk.

[background sound: “Reese! How are you?”]

THE SOUND SUPPORT TEAM HAS
TRAVELED TO OVER 100 SCHOOLS
ACROSS MICHIGAN

Kelly Kochanny, Teacher Consultant for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing
I think kids with hearing loss — it’s not a one-and-done type of disability. Every year brings, like, lots of challenges and it takes a team approach to help keep the student at the center of it, and Kelly came when Rhys transferred to this school and educated its staff. His parents came and that’s really the ideal model.

Teresa Zwolan, Director, U-M Cochlear Implant Program
Sound Support was established for us to provide outreach to all of the professionals in the state of Michigan so that we can maximize the outcomes that our children with implants will have. It can’t end at our clinic door. Not everybody can travel to Ann Arbor, so a lot of our outreach are to the educational professionals that work with the children to educate them about how to best work with the device and work with the children to make them learn to listen and talk the best they possibly can.

Kelly Starr
And now, Rhys is in his general education placement, functioning with other children his age, doing activities that other kids his age are doing — just being a typical young boy.

RHYS IS EXCITED TO PLAN
THE NEXT STEPS OF HIS JOURNEY

Rhys
I want to be, like, engineering builder and a junk builder. There’s a lot of stuff that I want to be.

Video Produced by Harry Mayers, Michigan Media All photos by Eric Bronson, Michigan Photography
By Jina Sawani

Receiving a cochlear implant as a baby was only the beginning of 10-year-old Rhys Craker’s hearing journey.

Learning to live in a hearing world and with a cochlear implant takes adjustment—for the patient, the patient’s family and the people in the patient’s life.

It’s the mission of the University of Michigan’s Sound Support program, an arm of U-M’s Cochlear Implant Program, to help all involved manage the changes and thrive.

A cochlear implant. The University of Michigan's Cochlear Implant program is one of the oldest in the country

A cochlear implant

Rhys’ family has received that support, starting from when he was diagnosed with hearing loss, through his cochlear implant surgery and into his schools and home, where Sound Support offers services and training of the people in his life.

“U-M had it set up for us. It was wonderful,” said Rhys’ mother, Jaymie Hatt of Traverse City. “They kind of said, ‘Here are the steps we take. This is how often you’ll have to come down. These are the things that we’re going to do.”

Established in 1984, U-M’s Cochlear Implant Program is one of the oldest in the country and has restored hearing to more than 3,500 children and adults. Sound Support started as an outreach program in 2004. It is funded by a matching grant between the U-M Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and Michigan Medicaid.

The mission of this outreach program is twofold: 1) To improve the quality and timeliness of care for children who are deaf and hard of hearing, including diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of hearing loss; 2) Accomplishment of this goal will reduce the costs associated with medical, social and educational management of hearing-impaired individuals as they become adults.

Rhys Craker is one of the patients in the University of Michigan's Sound Support program, part of the university's Cochlear Implant program

Rhys and his parents

Sound Support’s outreach is available to any child with hearing loss in the state of Michigan. Its unique approach combines medical treatment and rehabilitative treatment on campus and through connections in communities around the state.

The program’s diverse team comprises audiologists, speech-language pathologists, auditory-verbal therapists and pediatric otolaryngologists. Together, they work to improve the timeliness of early diagnosis of and intervention for hearing loss.

After diagnosis and intervention, the relationship is really just beginning.

“We couldn’t just put an implant in a child and then send them off to their school or back to their home community without any training or assistance,” said Sound Support director Teresa Zwolan. “So, we make sure that our program provides outreach to all related professionals in Michigan to maximize the outcomes that our children with implants have.”

Sound Support provides onsite training to teachers, therapists and others who work with children who are deaf or hard of hearing on a variety of topics, including cochlear implants, hearing aids, auditory-verbal therapy and assistive devices.

“We know that our work can’t end at our clinic door,” Zwolan said. “And not everyone can travel to Ann Arbor, so a lot of our outreach is to educational professionals that work directly with children. This is to teach them about how best to work with hearing devices, and to help children listen and talk the best they possibly can.”

Kelly Starr, a speech-language pathologist and auditory-verbal therapist with the program, has been working with Rhys since he was a baby. Her work happens on campus, and she also travels to communities to help the people in the patients’ lives understand their needs.

Speech language pathologist Kelly Starr of the University of Michigan's Sound Support program

Kelly Starr

“Rhys is a patient that I’ve been working with since the start of his journey at the University of Michigan,” Starr said. “In my role, I work with children who are deaf and hard of hearing, teaching them to listen and talk.”

Kelly Kochanny, a teacher consultant for the deaf and hard of hearing who works with Rhys at his school in northern Michigan, said Starr and Sound Support are critical to Rhys’ success.

“I think kids with hearing loss, it’s not a one-and-done type of disability,” Kochanny said. “Every year brings lots of challenges and it takes a team approach to help keep the student at the center and Kelly came (from U-M) when Rhys transferred to this school and educated his staff. His parents came, and that’s really the ideal model.”

Kelly Kochanny, teacher consultant for the deaf and hard of hearing, works with Rhys, one of the young patients in the University of Michigan's Sound Support program, part of the U-M's Cochlear Implant program

Kelly Kochanny works with Rhys

Research has shown that children with hearing loss are best served by a community of professionals, as each one plays an important role in helping kids reach their full potential.

Traditionally, Sound Support leads school visits that provide educators with information regarding a specific child, and once an observation of the child is made in the educational setting by Sound Support staff, it is followed by consultations with school employees to discuss the child’s progress and specific needs.

“We know that our work can’t end at our clinic door, and not everyone can travel to Ann Arbor, so a lot of our outreach is to educational professionals that work directly with children.”
– Sound Support director, Teresa Zwolan, Ph.D

Through its many legs, Sound Support works to increase awareness regarding hearing loss and the importance of early referrals among the medical community through presentations at local, regional and state professional meetings.

The program also offers lectures regarding advances in hearing technology, as well as intervention techniques, for undergraduate, graduate and medical students throughout the state of Michigan.

"There's a lot of stuff I want to be," says Rhys Craker, a young patient in the University of Michigan's Sound Support program, part of the U-M's Cochlear Implant program

“There’s a lot of stuff I want to be.”

In addition, audiologists, speech pathologists and teacher consultants are allowed an opportunity to network, collaborate and share information through the Sound Support Mentorship Program. This component primarily aims to promote understanding around the impact of hearing loss on early childhood development.

“Through our mentorship program, there is an opportunity for individualized training for professionals who provide diagnostic and rehabilitative services for children with hearing loss throughout Michigan,” Zwolan said. “This is really important.”

And as for Rhys, he is now flourishing and dreaming of what’s to come. He says maybe he’ll be an engineer or builder when he grows up.

“There’s a lot of stuff that I want to be,” he said.

Starr said Rhys is thriving.

“Rhys is in his school functioning with other children his age,” she said. “He’s doing activities that other kids his age are doing—just being a typical young boy. It’s really wonderful to see.”

Sound Support
Cochlear Implant Program
Teresa Zwolan
This Is Michigan

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