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speech hearing issues children

Hearing and Speech Issues in Children: FAQs

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Hearing and Speech Issues are Common in Children

Hearing and speech issues are quite common in children, and can manifest in a number of ways. Understandably, this ambiguity can be concerning for parents, especially with all of the unknowns. 

But it’s important to remember that these issues are usually manageable and treatable, especially with early intervention. That’s why it’s vital for the parents of young children to be well-informed on hearing and speech issues so they know all of their options. 

After all, language is the basis of communication. Speech and language skills are essential to many areas in a child’s life, from interpersonal relationships to academic success. The ability to communicate, both with peers and adults, is essential for a child’s success. Read more

Hearing Tests for Kids

Back-to-School Hearing Tests for Kids

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Why are Hearing Tests for Kids Needed

Back-to-school preparation is hectic, with shopping for kid-approved clothing and supplies. Along with the hunt for the perfect t-shirt and shoes, don’t forget hearing tests for kids.

Your child is young and healthy. Why would she need a hearing test? The Center for Disease Control says about 15 percent of all kids between 6 and 19 have hearing loss. And even a mild amount of loss in one ear can have a major impact on your child’s ability to learn and socialize effectively. Read more

Give the Gift of Communication

Give The Gift of Communication

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Communication Disorders in Children

Imagine having a son who has trouble communicating. He is struggling in school because he has trouble pronouncing D’s and N’s. At the playground, other kids alienate him because they don’t understand what he is saying and rather than trying to understand, they walk away.

Now imagine the frustration of trying to raise the child at home. He tries to tell you how he is feeling, but you don’t understand. He becomes upset and runs into his room. As a parent, you feel as though you are powerless to help and have no where to turn.

This is more than a hypothetical situation, this is a true story of the father of one of our patients. Unfortunately, many children who have communication issues go untreated due to financial limitations. Read more

pediatric speech therapy jacksonville fl

Pediatric Speech Therapy Jacksonville, FL

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Pediatric Speech Therapy Jacksonville, FLPediatric speech therapy is important for the youth of Jacksonville. Children connect with each other through communication. When the ability to speak and hear is affected or does not exist, the isolation and long-term effects can be profound. This is especially true in children, as hearing, speaking and understanding spoken language is an essential component to their growth and development.

When Pediatric Speech and Hearing issues go untreated, disorders in hearing and speech/language develop. This causes problems both at home and at school by impacting the child’s ability to learn. Poor self-esteem and behavior problems can lead to a lifetime of isolation. As adults, untreated communication disorders make it difficult to hold a job and be a contributing member of the community.

Pediatric Speech Therapy Jacksonville, FL

Early childhood success depends on a strong base of language and speech. The Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center (JSHC) is a non-profit agency and one of very few agencies that provides Pediatric Speech Therapy to underprivileged children and families in our community. For the past sixty years, the JSHC has provided the highest quality professional care to anyone with hearing, speech and/or language disorders.

WATCH with CC: Learn about pediatric speech and hearing disorders from Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center President & CEO Mike Howland

Certified Autism Center in Jacksonville, FL

Certified Autism CenterJacksonville Speech & Hearing Center is proud to be a Certified Autism Center in Jacksonville, FL specially trained to provide a high level of service to patients with autism and communication challenges.

A Certified Autism Center provides a patient-friendly environment that includes:

  • no sensory overload
  • patients ushered to quiet rooms
  • treatment that is minimally disruptive to the patient
  • communication with family members regarding diagnosis and treatment
  • a focus on “yes” or “no” questions to patient
  • allowing patients to see and touch materials
  • a health care professional manner that is direct and factual

If you are looking for Pediatric Speech Therapy in Jacksonville, FL, please contact us TODAY to schedule an appointment at (904) 355-3403.

make a difference

Make A Difference!

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Everybody wants to make a difference. At Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center, we understand that everyone’s gift or what they are able to give is different. Some have more time, others have more money, some even have both! If you want to give the children in our community the ability to communicate free from stigma, find the options to give that work best for you.

Volunteer

Volunteering reflects the power of the human spirit and proves that by working together, we can build a better world. If you have extra time and are more of a hands on kind of person, our volunteer program is for you. Our volunteers come from all walks of life within the First Coast community. From public relations to administration, we have a need your time and experience can fill.

Learn more about our Volunteer program.

Donate

As the only non-profit agency in Northeast Florida accredited for both speech-language pathology and audiology services, we provide the highest quality, compassionate care through the generosity of individuals, corporations, foundations, and partnering organizations ensuring that no one is turned away. When you donate to JSHC, you help us provide these services to our community.

Learn more about how to Donate.

Events

Did you know we are very active in the Jacksonville community? You can join us at a variety of events such as Health Fairs, Hearing Screenings, Fundraisers, and even Jaguars Games!

Learn more about when and where our next events are taking place.

Planned Giving

Planned giving is a contribution arranged in the present and allocated at a future date, commonly donated through a will or trust.

Placing the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center in your will can insure increased access to services for our clients. Gift planning uses tax laws to enable you to pursue your philanthropic goals while minimizing your cost of giving and maximizing the benefits to yourself and your family.

Learn more about Planned Giving to Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center.

No matter how you give, the important thing is that you do! We appreciate all contributions, and know how even the smallest ones can make a difference. Keep in mind that not only will you feel good, your gift will make a positive difference in someone’s life.

If you have further questions about our audiologists, services, events or volunteer opportunities, please reach out to us online or call (904) 355-3403‎.

#givingtuesday jacksonville

Support Jacksonville Children Better Speech & Hearing #GivingTuesday

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This year on Tuesday, November 29, 2016, Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center will participate in #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving.

Last year more than 700,000 people in over 70 countries participated in #GivingTuesday. Since it’s founding in 2012, #GivingTuesday has inspired giving around the world, resulting in greater donations, volunteer hours, and activities that bring about real change in communities.

We are thrilled to join the movement again this year and THANK YOU for supporting Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center. When you make a contribution to the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center, you are investing in lasting changes in our community. Reach into your heart and give a gift to help preschoolers be ready for kindergarten.

#GivingTuesday

 

Help us help Northeast Florida’s children be ready for kindergarten able to communicate and free from stigma. When you give to the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center, you are investing in an effort to create lasting change in our community. Please consider a gift to help preschoolers be ready for kindergarten.

$2200

Your gift will fully support a child with communication disorder through his or her speech-language therapy program, an average of 22 intensive hour-long sessions.

$525

Your gift will provide 15 children with hearing and speech language screenings.

$200

Your gift will provide one child with a Diagnostic Speech-Language Evaluation.

$100

Your gift will provide a child with one hour of intensive speech-language therapy.

$35

Your gift will provide one child with a hearing and speech language screening.

You choose how much

No gift is too small, we appreciate your donation of any amount!

Visit our DONATE Page

Pediatric Speech Therapy Jacksonville, FL

Jacksonville Hearing Screenings – Free Community Events

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Throughout the year the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center works with a variety of organizations and schools to provide community education as well as on-site mobile hearing and speech screenings. Our mobile van is fully equipped with an audiological booth for hearing testing on-site even in the noisiest of environments. With the help of our individual and corporate supporters, we reach and assist many more children, adults, and seniors who are having speech and/or hearing difficulties.

Join us at one of our upcoming free events across North Florida for an informative lecture followed by free hearing screenings.

 

 

Date
Saturday March 5th, 2016

Location
Florida State College at Jacksonville
Downtown Campus

Time
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

We look forward to seeing you there!

If you have questions about JSHC audiologists, services, events or volunteer opportunities, please reach out to us online or call (904) 355-3403‎.

hearing aids jacksonville

Growing Up With Hearing Loss: Trey’s Story

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Trey, a Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center patient for over 20 years, shares his experience of growing up with hearing loss and explains how digital hearing aids have improved his social life and education.

Q: Trey shares his experience as a JSHC patient for 20+ years

Trey: My name is Trey and I am a client of the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center. I’ve been going there since I was 2 years old and I’m 26 years old now. I’ve gone through their speech therapy, I’ve gotten hearing aids from them and they are all excellent. I enjoy going there. Dr. Mattson, my current audiologist at the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center, is excellent. She actually had given me my most current set of hearing aids. They work excellent, the hearing aids I have now. With this (Bluetooth) I can answer the phone through that.

Q: Trey explains how hearing aid technology helped him as a student.

Trey: The first set of hearing aids I had were analog, and now the ones I have are digital. The digital ones seem to be a little bit better. Now, with these hearing aids, they actually have Bluetooth I can connect to my cellphone or a microphone. With the microphone, if I’m in school, the teacher or the instructor can wear the microphone, and it helps me to hear the instructor better. There is a device that I can connect to the TV so I can hear the TV better. If anyone has that type of hearing loss, it’s very helpful.

Q: Trey explains how speech therapy and hearing aids have improved his life.

Trey: When I first started going there I was going through speech therapy. It has really helped me out. Now I can hear better, I can speak better, and with the hearing aids they gave me, I can hear better. As the years went on, I can speak better. That really helped me out quite a bit.

Q: A father shares his thoughts on parenting a child with hearing loss.

Trey’s Father: Trey has been going to the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center since he was 2 years old. A lot of you may be asking why we decided to take him to speech and hearing. We noticed in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, there was not a lot of attentiveness. He wasn’t paying attention and even though we would speak to him, he wouldn’t respond. We decided to go on and have his hearing tested.

Obviously as a parent what you need to do is watch your child, make sure that when you are speaking to them they are actually responding to you, and they are responding not only with their eyes, but with their ears. They are turning and those kinds of things.

It is not a stigmatism to take your child to get hearing aids, it’s no different than taking them to get glasses. You need to pay attention to your child at an early age to make sure they get the attention and the help they need early on because it not only affects their hearing, it affects their speech. Their speech, obviously, is everything to them, especially when they get older, With Trey, we just noticed it early on and as a parent, you need to stay focused on your child.

Q: How having hearing tests and services on-site under one building provides convenience.

Trey: That is very helpful to me because that way I don’t have to drive to multiple places to get the testing done. They have their own closed booth for hearing tests and that is very helpful to me because I don’t like having to go all over town just to get that done.

Q: What digital hearing aid technology is important.

Trey: With digital technology, they can take the hearing aid and connect them to the computer to fine tune the hearing aids to match someone’s hearing loss a lot better than the analog ones. The analog ones take a lot of work to fine tune them but with the digital ones, it is a lot faster, better, and more accurate.

Q: Young people and hearing aids.

Trey: If someone has hearing aids, it is good to always be positive and not let other people bother you. Having hearing aids is just like having glasses. People wear glasses, some wear hearing aids, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Q: Having your ear mold and technicians on-site at JSHC provides convenience.

Trey: It is always good to have a technician right there at the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center because then you don’t have to go all over town to have it done. You don’t necessarily need to see your audiologist for your ear mold, but since there is always a technician available at the Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center, if there is something wrong with the ear mold or the tubing, you can just have them fix it, sometimes in just 15 minutes.

If you have further questions about our audiologists, services, events or volunteer opportunities, please reach out to us online or call (904) 355-3403‎. If you would like to WATCH Trey’s interview, visit our YouTube channel.
swimmers ear jacksonville

Swimmer’s Ear: What Moms Need to Know About Swimming & Ear Issues

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This summer, kids will spend lots of time in the pool and playing in the ocean. If you’re a parent, you may be all too familiar with the pain and discomfort in your child’s ears after a long weekend of swimming. Depending on your child’s age, the symptoms they exhibit may vary, but the result is the same: pain, inflammation and even infection can set in. By being informed of the causes, prevention and treatment options, you can hopefully reduce the chance of having to deal with swimmer’s ear.

Swimmer’s ear, or otitis externa, is a painful inflammation and infection of the ear canal. While anyone can get otitis externa from a variety of causes, it is most often seen in children and caused by water getting in the ear from activities such as swimming- hence the name. Unfortunately, once someone has had swimmer’s ear, they are likely to get it again.

Signs and Symptoms

The main symptom of swimmer’s ear, or otitis externa, is ear pain. It can be quite severe and usually gets worse when the outer part of the ear is pulled or pressed; it may also be painful when chewing. For children, swelling of the ear canal might make them complain of a full feeling or discomfort in the ear. The outer part of the ear may become red or swollen, and the lymph nodes around the ear could become large and possibly tender. There could also be drainage of clear, odorless fluid.

If left untreated symptoms could get worse, resulting in temporary hearing loss. This is caused by pus and debris or swelling of the canal which blocks the passage of sound into the ear.

Causes of Swimmer’s Ear

Swimmer’s ear can occur when water, sand, dirt, or other common debris gets inside the ear canal. Other possible causes include:

  • A very narrow or hairy ear canal
  • Bubble baths, soaps, and shampoos that get in the ear canal
  • Earwax stuck in the ear canal (impacted) due to use of cotton swabs that may push the earwax deeper into the ear canal
  • Exostoses, or bony overgrowths in the ear canal
  • Headphones or hearing aids inserted into the ear
  • Scratching the ear canal with a cotton swab, bobby pin, fingernail, or other sharp object
  • Skin problems, such as eczema, psoriasis, or seborrhea
  • Sweating

Preventing Swimmer’s Ear

Follow these suggestions to prevent swimmer’s ear.

  • Always dry the ears well, tilting the head to both sides to drain water from the ear canal after water activities such as swimming or bath time.
  • Use over-the-counter ear drops that contain acetic acid or alcohol, which help prevent infection when used after swimming. Only use if the eardrums are still intact.
  • Do not put objects into ears or attempt to clean them, including cotton-tipped swabs.

Treating Swimmer’s Ear

Since otitis externa is an infection in a hard to reach and delicate place, it should be treated by a doctor. Place a warm washcloth or heating pad against the affected ear and use Acetaminophen or ibuprofen to ease discomfort until seeing the doctor. Wear a shower cap while showering or bathing to prevent more water getting in the ear. Your doctor may also recommend earplugs for water activities.

Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center wants to make sure you get the facts about swimmer’s ear so you and your family can have a safe and healthy summer. Swimmer’s ear can be very painful, and sometimes even serious. If you suspect swimmer’s ear, get it checked out and treated by a doctor.

If you have further questions about our services, events or volunteer opportunities, please reach out to us or call (904) 355-3403‎.

speech and hearing jacksonville

May Is Better Hearing and Speech Month

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Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center wants to remind Jacksonville residents that communication disorders are treatable by raising awareness that May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. Founded in 1949, Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center provides speech pathology and audiology evaluations and treatments including hearing aid fittings for children, adults and seniors from its office at 1128 N. Laura St.

Better Hearing and Speech Month

“Our staff of seasoned professionals has decades of experience in the areas of speech pathology and audiology,” said Mike Howland, President and CEO of Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center. “We work with everyone whether they have insurance or not to provide quality, affordable care.”

Hearing loss can affect children and adults.

Signs for parents to watch for with a child’s hearing loss is:

  • lack of attention to sounds,
  • does not follow simple directions,
  • delays in speech and language development,
  • and pulls or scratches his/her ears. 

In adults, hearing loss signs can include:

  • buzzing or ringing in ears,
  • muffled hearing,
  • increasing the volume on the television or radio,
  • constant frustration hearing speech and other sounds.

Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center offers a variety of hearing aids including in the canal and behind the ear.  Unlike many hearing aid centers, Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center works with a number of hearing aid manufacturers including Widex, Oticon, Siemens, Resound, Phonax and Unitron. This feature insures that the patient receives the type of hearing aid that will best help their particular hearing loss.

“Over 40 million Americans experience some kind of hearing loss,” said Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center audiologist Dr. Fenja Mattson. “Research has shown that addressing hearing loss can positively impact all aspects of a person’s life – personally, professionally and financially. I know we make it possible for people to continue to participate in the work force by wearing hearing aids.”

On the speech pathology side of the Center’s work, speech pathologists work with children and adults evaluating and treating language skills. Failure to assist children who have trouble with developing vocabulary or auditory processing can lead to problems in school. Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center can also work with children who are on the autism spectrum to help them improve their speech and adults who may have suffered speech impairment due to stroke.

“We have identified through pre-kindergarten screenings several preschoolers who have difficulty with articulation or stuttering disorders,” said Dorothy Train-Marsh, Speech Pathologist at Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center.  “These youngsters have now successfully exited the program with age appropriate skills that will give them a solid foundation for school.”

As part of its celebration of Better Hearing and Speech Month, Jacksonville Speech & Hearing Center hosts the annual FinFest event at Timaquana Country Club. This event uses an island/beach theme to raise funds and awareness for patients of the Center who cannot afford treatment.

Click here to learn more about FinFest