Can You Hear Me Now?

Technology and Student Hearing

About one in six K-12 students has unrecognized hearing loss that lowers learning.1,2

Recent research suggests that American teachers are particularly attuned to children who are difficult to engage because of a hearing deficit.3 In fact, teachers, the authors assert, may be more likely than parents to recognize the telltale signs of hearing loss. Among students in K-12 schools, hearing loss can impair language and social-emotional development and interfere elementally with academic performance.4 An inability to hear can dramatically lower the trajectory of a child’s life.

Importantly, children may not manifest symptoms of hearing loss--even from congenital causes--until adolescence.5 For this reason, the American Academy of Audiology’s Guidelines (the 'Guidelines') recommend repetitive testing—for cohorts in preschool and kindergarten, grades one, three, and five, and grade seven or nine.6 Yet, because many U.S. states lack adequate mandates for periodic screenings, many of our nation’s youth remain undiagnosed.

We can fix this. Today, affordable, portable and simple-to-use digital tools can detect hearing disorders that are treatable or reversible. And they can be operated without a professional audiologist, enabling school nurses to survey students more readily. PTAs can help do large-scale screenings and uncover ways to improve individual student performance and the statewide ranking of the entire school.7 The digital solutions below use desktop computers, tablets and smartphones to administer hearing tests with the aid of a software application and noise-attenuating headphones. They share several critical advantages.

• They can be operated by lay workers with no prior healthcare experience and minimal training.

• They are portable, durable and, therefore, readily scalable.

• They eliminate the need for audiologists and otolaryngologists in the early stage of detection, making large-scale screenings inexpensive.

• They achieve a high degree of accuracy; and

• They store test results which are transferrable to an online database and can be shared with parents.

Here are some examples:*

1. Sense Examination Platform; This computer-based program, developed by the Institute of Sensory Organs, conducts “pure-tone” audiometry, the gold standard test for six- to 12-year-olds. Results are sent to an internet database with a unique identifier that preserves privacy.^8,9

2. hearScreen^TM Software; This software application downloaded to an Android OS smartphone can be operated by non-specialists with only basic literacy and digital skills, reducing recruitment and training costs. Protocol and interpretation of results is automated, data is managed in the cloud, and GPS facilitates patient referrals to nearby providers.^{10,11,12,13,14}

3. TabSINT Software; An Android tablet programmed with this free, open-source application and paired via Bluetooth with wireless, noise-reducing headphones,** can screen and store results with minimal human intervention. The system has demonstrated accuracy with a sensitivity and specificity of 100 and 99 percent, respectively.^15,16

Explore the references at the end of this newsletter, speak up for students with hearing difficulties and ensure that you are heard.

*Neither The Optimistic Futurist, nor any of its partner organizations, employees, or volunteers, receives compensation for the mention of specific products.

**Wireless attenuating hearing test system (WAHTS).

 

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Recognizing the signs of hearing loss in children

 

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Don’t Know Where to Start?  Start Here.

Clean Air in Buildings:

An Online Training Course for Schools

Nearly one-half of America's K-12 schools have indoor environments that lower learning and academic performance.^1,2

If free, self-guided training to fix this situation appeals to you, consider a new course designed to equip school district staff with all the practical skills to improve indoor air quality. The Clean Air in Buildings for Schools Online Training Course, developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, teaches you how to assess and apply ventilation, filtration, and other air cleaning and monitoring techniques that affect the indoor environment where you work.

With expertise from U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools and EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools Program, the course

• explains the scientific foundation for ventilation and filtration strategies that effectively enhance IAQ;
• describes practical ventilation and filtration methods to improve IAQ;
• evaluates other technologies that may contribute to indoor air quality and monitoring; and
• identifies steps in an IAQ action plan.

Learn more about the EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools, access other valuable school environmental health resources, and/or email questions iaqschools@epa.gov.

1 Is CO2 an Indoor Pollutant? Direct Effects of Low-to-Moderate CO2 Concentrations on Human Decision-Making Performance

2 Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee Report of the Indoor Environment Workgroup

 

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References for Can You Hear Me Now?

1. ^https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/52814-Hearing-loss-statistics-at-a-glance#:~:text=Approximately%203%20of%20every%201%2C000,About%2020%25%20of%20teens%20do.
2. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/2023-0524-bhsm-auds-schools#:~:text=May%2024%2C%202023,hard%20of%20hearing%20students%20succeed.
3. Brodie, K. D. et al. Outcomes of an Early Childhood Hearing Screening Program in a Low-Income Setting. JAMA Otolaryngoly Head Neck Surg. 148.4 (2022):326–332. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2021.4430.
4. UNESCO-Pearson Initiative for Literacy: Improved Livelihoods in a Digital World. Accessed on February 11, 2025.
5. Manus, Michelle, et al. Community-based hearing and vision screening…. Language, speech, and hearing services in schools. 52.2 (2021): 568-580..
6. American Academy of Audiology Guidelines for Testing School-Age Populations. Clinical Practice Guidelines: Childhood Hearing Screening. Accessed on February 10, 2025.
7. Saunders, James E et al. Community health workers and mHealth systems for hearing screening in rural schoolchildren. Journal of global health vol. 12 04060. 9 Aug. 2022. doi:10.7189/jogh.12.04060.
8. Gos, Elzbieta et al. Results of Hearing Screening in School-Age Children from Rural Areas. The journal of international advanced otology vol. 18,2 (2022): 106-111. doi:10.5152/iao.2022.21164.
9. Świerniak, W., et al. Results of pilot hearing screening in schoolchildren. (Abstract only). Journal of Hearing Science 12.1 (2022).
10. Manus, Michelle, et al. Community-based hearing and vision screening in schools in low-income communities using mobile health technologies. Language, speech, and hearing services in schools 52.2 (2021): 568-580.
11. Castillo, Nathan M et al. HearScreen: case study by UNESCO-Pearson Initiative for Literacy. Pearson. UNESCO Digital Library, ED/PLS/YLS/2017/09.
12. Mahomed-Asmail, Faheema, et al. Clinical validity of hearScreen™ smartphone hearing screening for school children. Ear and hearing 37.1 (2016): e11-e17.
13. UNESCO-Pearson Initiative for Literacy: Improved Livelihoods in a Digital World. Accessed on February 11, 2025.
14. Sandström, Josefin, et al. Smartphone threshold audiometry in underserved primary health-care contexts. International Journal of Audiology 55.4 (2016): 232-238.
15. Saunders, James E et al. Community health workers and mHealth systems for hearing screening in rural schoolchildren. Journal of global health vol. 12 04060. 9 Aug. 2022, doi:10.7189/jogh.12.04060.
16. Quinn, Mackenzie Koven. Screening for Minimal Hearing Loss in Children (2022). Capstones & Scholarly Projects. 98.