Empowering babies: NJ-based organization helps babies, toddlers with hearing loss

👂 Hearing loss can negatively affect language, speech, and communication

👂 Early intervention is critical

👂 NJ-based program helps support hearing-impaired babies, toddlers

MOUNTAIN LAKES — A Morris County-based nonprofit has been working for nearly three decades to provide help to New Jersey's youngest residents dealing with hearing loss.

Founded in 1996, Sound Start Babies was born with a mission to support educational and therapeutic programs to help babies and toddlers with hearing loss lead full and successful lives.

Currently, the organization provides services in all 21 New Jersey counties.

Specifically, Sound Start Babies has developed a program to help children deal with hearing loss. According to the organization's website, "the goal of the program is for children with hearing loss to develop language, speech, and communication skills commensurate with those of hearing peers and for their parents and other caregivers to have the information and strategies to foster this development throughout childhood."

To date, Sound Start Babies has helped thousands of babies with hearing loss to listen, speak, communicate, and achieve their full potential.

"When a family joins our program, they immediately become a part of the Sound Start Babies family. Even if only one practitioner from our team is providing their services, we work as a unit, so they get the expertise of our entire disciplinary team," said Kayley Mayer, program coordinator and teacher of the deaf. "When they first receive that diagnosis and begin the early intervention process, it can be so overwhelming and we're proud to be able to support them during this critical point in their journey."

Early Intervention

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that about two to three out of every 1,000 children in the U.S. are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears.

Research shows the first three years of life are a crucial period for establishing language, speech, and communication. This is why intervention is key to ensure that babies and toddlers don't fall behind in these critical life skills.

"It is well documented that there is an optimal period of brain development for learning to talk, understand, and communicate, the first three years of life. That is why I've dedicated my professional life to making sure that babies born with hearing loss have the care they need during this window of opportunity. The Sound Start Early Intervention Program guides families of little ones with hearing loss to maximize opportunities and experiences to ensure they develop skills comparable to their hearing peers," Laura McKirdy, founder of Sound Start Babies and a speech-language pathologist.

The organization said it is New Jersey's first program to provide both total communication and listening and spoken language options. As advancements have been made in hearing loss treatment, the organization said they continue to implement "new technologies and strategies so that the babies it serves can attain the skills they need for a lifetime of learning and success."

Sound Start Babies Nursery

Once a child's hearing loss is recognized and evaluated, Sound Start Babies is able to offer help through a unique classroom structure.

Opened over a decade ago, the Sound Start Babies Nursery provides children between the ages of 18- to 36-months-old an opportunity to learn in small groups with other children with and without hearing loss.

The curriculum is "designed to build the foundation for language and literacy across all subject areas and to foster social and emotional development and emerging cognitive executive functioning skills," according to the organization's website.

Some of the key features of the program, according to the organization's website, include:

• Acoustically enhanced classrooms that offer a favorable signal to noise ratio with minimal reverberation so that children get clear auditory information. These accommodations include sound proofing panels and a group amplification system.
• Ongoing observation and monitoring of children’s amplification systems to be sure they are always in good working order.
• Choice in the selection of mode of communication include listening and spoken language classrooms and a total communication classroom (combining signed and spoken language).
• A thematic curriculum that includes art, music, movement, and creative play.
• A curriculum that includes activities designed to build executive functions including attention, problem solving, turn taking and impulse control.

The organization said the Sound Start Babies Nursery Program is the only one of its kind in New Jersey. Those that work on the program's team include teachers, speech language pathologists, early childhood educators, and a pediatric audiologist. The program offer full-day learning from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. or half-day learning from 9 a.m. to noon.

How You Can Help

To help cover the program's operating expenses, Sound Start Babies relies on funding from businesses and private donors. The organization said about two-thirds of its budget is supported by private donations. As the program expands throughout New Jersey, the organization is seeing a need for additional funding to ensure that all children with hearing loss get the support they desire.

For more information on Sound Start Babies, visit their website at soundstartbabies.org

(Editor's Note: This story has been updated)

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