FHSR created a strategic partnership with the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (formerly known as Children’s Memorial Hospital) to provide funding for a series of one of a kind services and programs the year 2000. The goal was to remove barriers by helping children with hearing loss communicate more effectively and ease their access to services.
Through this strategic partnership FHSR has helped the Lurie Children’s Audiology Department provide multiple services for children with hearing loss. These services have included funding for the audiology technician, the loaner hearing device bank, music therapists, social workers for families and children, the Pediatric Otology Special Needs Fund, and creating the position of the Hart Family Education Liaison for the Cochlear Implant Program, who provides educational support for children with Cochlear Implants.
Lurie Children’s continues to expand its status as a worldwide leader in evaluating and implanting children with multiple or complex medical issues. FHSR’s partnership helps provide essential services and key staff positions.
The Lurie Children’s pediatric Audiology and Cochlear Implant team excels at meeting the unique challenges in the care of each child and is intensifying research to bring forth better treatments. They completed 99 cochlear implantations in 2023. These patients included 12 children with unilateral hearing loss, which is an exciting development in the field. In the past, cochlear implantation was deemed effective only for children with bilateral hearing loss. This newer indication for the procedure means youngsters with profound unilateral hearing loss will experience the benefits of hearing from two ears. The advantages include better hearing in difficult listening environments and improved ability to understand where sounds are coming from, an important safety benefit.
The hospital has expanded audiology services at all the satellite centers including Westchester, Northbrook, New Lenox, and Skokie. In the last year, these locations proved very important for patient families who were hesitant to come downtown but still needed care for their child.
To learn more about what is happening in the clinic today, view the FHSR IMPACT REPORT
This fun family event is presented by Lurie Children’s Hospital. 100% of the funds we raise benefit the Lurie Audiology Department! Join us on this walk and help create community and shared experiences among families who have children with hearing loss.
100% of the donations made to our team; Mal’s Pals and FHSR, are used to support the Audiology Department and FHSR Programming including the Hart Family Cochlear Implant Educational Liaison, and their Music Therapist.
Make sure to join us and support this great cause!
We know there will be beautiful lake views, laughing and hanging out – with new and old friends!
Jen Haney, MA, DT-H, the Hart Family Cochlear Implant Education Coordinator, continues to be a critical patient advocate within the many schools and varying districts where the children we serve attend. She is a highly important resource who helps optimize learning environments for children and schools throughout the six-county Chicago region. She educates and collaborates with school professionals to improve the academic, social, and emotional growth of children with cochlear implants.
With key funding from Louise Hart, founding Board Director for FHSR, the Hart Family Cochlear Implant Education Coordinator is one of 13 such specialists in the U.S.
The Education Coordinator sets Lurie Children’s apart from many peer institutions that do not have this critical program and plays a crucial role in educating professionals in the community so that children with cochlear implants get the appropriate support level they need.
In 2008, FHSR and Lurie Children’s established the Hart Family Cochlear Implant Education Coordinator, to assist implanted children and their families before and after implantation. FHSR continues to fund this key role that collaborates with schools to create education plans to support children on their path to academic success.
Jen Haney, MA, DT-H, has been a true patient champion, constantly in contact with families and schools to identify each child’s set of strengths and areas of need so patients have appropriate support in place. Her position assists families in advocating for their children to ensure they receive appropriate services at school, classroom placements and helps school staff to support the unique learning needs of each implanted child.
Jen is often called upon by parents to help their child receive appropriate classroom accommodations.
In 2023, Jen assisted 223 students, conducted 57 meetings with school staff and community organizations, attended 4 conferences, and gave 17 presentations. In the last year, she served 17 school districts and cooperatives in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Additionally, after a three-year hiatus, Jen hosted Lurie Day at the hospital and attendance was at maximum capacity with 95 attendees and a waitlist, demonstrating the importance of this event for the wider audiology community.
Since the program began in March 2023, Jacqueline (Jackie) Vilca, MT-BC, NICU-MT practices from an eclectic music therapy approach and provides services in English and Spanish. She has had 77 sessions with patients. She serves patients at the main hospital as well as the Clark Deming and Northbrook outpatient centers.
Jackie utilizes a number of interventions during sessions that include: musical attention control training, auditory perception training, developmental speech and language training through music, therapeutic singing and speech stimulation.
To respond to patient needs with the latest and best care, FHSR has funded Lurie Children’s to launch a program to provide Music Therapy to cochlear implanted children who are receiving Auditory Verbal Therapy through a Lurie’s practitioner.
This is an opportunity for Lurie Children’s speech language pathologists (SLP) to discover and adopt the most effective Music Therapy techniques to achieve children’s therapy goals. These techniques will be integrated into therapy sessions, parent education, carryover strategies, and activities in the home environment.
We hope our families gain valuable knowledge and integrate components of Music Therapy into listening and language therapy goals for all children with hearing loss.
Louise Hart, long time Board Director, passed away peacefully at her home on May 1, 2020 at the age of 99. As a founding member of the Foundation for Hearing & Speech Rehabilitation (FHSR), Mrs. Hart helped to shape the mission of the Foundation and provided an unmatched level of commitment to helping individuals who are living with hearing loss.
In 2007, Mrs. Hart provided the initial funding for a crucial support position at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the Hart Family Cochlear Implant Education Coordinator.
In 2018, the Hart Family Foundation stepped forward to support the creation and initial funding drive for the Music To My Ears program to honor the Foundation’s 60th Anniversary.
CLICK HERE to learn about Louise’s Impact and the history of the foundation.
Nancy M. Young, MD, FACS, FAAP is the Lillian S. Wells Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Fellow of the Knowles Hearing Center of Northwestern. She is Head of the Section of Otology and Neurotology in the Division of Otolaryngology, and Medical Director of Audiology & the Cochlear Implant Programs at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s of Chicago. She is President-elect of the American Otological Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hearing Health Foundation. She was a founding board member of the American Cochlear Implant Alliance.
Dr. Young leads a multi-center study supported by NIH/NIDCD to develop individual child level language prediction after cochlear implantation using pre-surgical brain anatomy derived from magnetic resonance imaging and AI-enabled analytical methods. The goal of this research is to develop a predict-to-prescribe method to improve language outcome by implementation of effective individualized behavioral therapy. She is also principal investigator of the lead site of a multi-center sponsored FDA clinical trial to expand pediatric indications for the MED-EL Synchrony implant system.
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We hope you will consider making a gift to support these children. Thank you!
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FHSR is a qualified 501(C)(3) tax exempt organization. Tax ID number 36-6082810.
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