Rady Children’s Hospital’s Family-Centered Approach to Early Hearing Assessment

Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego set out to create a more family-centered approach to hearing assessment, giving families earlier access to education, clearer choices, and options that had not previously been available so early in a child’s care journey. Ability Central was proud to help support that effort.

The impact can be seen in the relief families feel when earlier intervention becomes possible, in the stronger understanding they gain from the start, and in the growing collaboration between Rady’s audiology team and the Deaf community.

In this article, we look at how Rady Children’s Hospital is creating a more family-centered approach to hearing assessment. We cover the new family brochure, expanded testing tools, collaboration with the Deaf community, and the difference this work is making for families.

Rady Children's Hospital: Serving Children with Atypical Hearing

Rady’s audiology department uses the term “atypical hearing” because often children are born without hearing and their experience with deafness should not be referred to as “hearing loss”.

Early Intervention

For families, the need for information begins early. If a baby is not responding to sound, parents are often left searching for answers, support, and the best path forward for their child. They may want to understand whether hearing aids could help, whether cochlear implants should be considered, or whether sign language may be part of their child’s communication journey.

With support from Ability Central, Rady Children’s Hospital has been able to provide families with educational materials earlier in the process and expand the options available to them. That includes a new hearing aid test that helps audiologists determine whether hearing aids are effective or whether cochlear implants may need to be considered.

The Parent Packet

Created with care and shaped by feedback from the Deaf community, this packet was made possible through grant funding from Ability Central.

Designed as a resource families can return to throughout a child’s journey, the brochure helps provide information at an earlier stage without overwhelming parents. Its goal is to give families the tools they need to make informed decisions about their child’s care.

Because the audiology team aims for intervention within the first three months, the brochure plays an important role in helping families understand their options early. As the age for cochlear implantation has dropped to 6 months, families are often faced with a great deal of information, including appointments, procedures, and communication choices. The packet helps break that information down into something families can take home, absorb over time, and revisit with their audiologist.

The packet was also developed with inclusion in mind. In presenting families with options for their child, Rady’s audiology program took special care to use inclusive language and avoid the idea that hearing is inherently superior to signing. The materials were first shared with members of the Deaf community for feedback, helping ensure that sign language was presented as a valid communication option.

The brochure is also designed to be adapted by other centers in California.

“Anything that we do doesn't just reside with us, but belongs for greater good so people don't have to reinvent the wheel,” says Julie Purdy, Rady’s Manager of Audiology.

Julie managed the project and was the original author of the brochure. She continues to meet quarterly with a team of surgeons and audiologists from multiple centers to collaborate on updates, helping extend the reach of this work beyond Rady Children’s Hospital.

Download the Parent Packet: Newly Identified Hearing Loss – English | Spanish

Hearing Aid Testing

Ability Central’s grant funding allowed Rady Children’s Hospital to become the second hospital in the U.S. to purchase Auditory Cortical Response Testing technology from Audiometrics.

This equipment helps audiologists determine whether hearing aids are effective. If they are, a child may not need cochlear implant surgery. If they are not, families can begin considering next steps, including whether and when to pursue cochlear implants or whether to move forward with other communication options such as sign language.

The audiology team first used the technology with older children to confirm it was working effectively. The grant also supported the collection of clinical data related to the testing.

Community Change

With this project, Rady Children's Hospital can see their collaboration and connection with the Deaf community growing.

“I think there's always been a bit of a disconnect between the medical professions in California and the Deaf community in California and so that we are seeing this interaction in a very honest open way is a really great outcome,” says Rady's Audiology Manager, Julie Purdy.

Not only is Rady using the clinical data gathered from testing, but they presented the data already at a national conference, have received multiple requests for additional information on policy and procedure, and have another national presentation coming up later in the year.

The Real Difference

Rady Children’s Hospital is used to seeing high satisfaction numbers and always strives to do its best for patients. But the impact of the new brochure and testing cannot really be captured through surveys alone.

As Julie explains, “In appointments, it’s an expression which you can’t quantify– the expression of relief that families are making educated decisions with the knowledge first. You see their shoulders settle back down each time.”

At Ability Central, we are proud to be part of the incredible, life-changing work the audiology department at Rady Children’s Hospital does every day in San Diego.

A brochure cannot tell a family what the future holds. An assessment cannot provide all the peace a parent needs. But the right education and information, at the right time, can help families make informed decisions when a child needs it most.

Julie’s words reflect the passion of an advocate working to create a better experience for the families she serves, most recently through this effort to provide education earlier and support families more effectively.

“We get so busy just seeing our patients, and it’s so nice to move the profession along in a way that’s so beneficial to families.”

Want to support more work like this? Explore Abilty Central’s homepage and consider a donation.