Group audiologic rehabilitation can be a fantastic way to enable hearing impaired persons to self-manage their hearing loss. On top of that, group workshops can provide audiology students with a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience that can transform their entire career.
In 2000, Ida Fellow Linda Thibodeau founded the Specialized Intensive Auditory Rehabilitation Conference (SIARC) at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she is a professor and clinical researcher. Offered annually each May, the week-long group rehabilitation workshop provides adults with hearing impairment and their communication partners the opportunity to experience the benefits of cooperative learning in a social environment.
Unlike most group rehabilitation programs, the SIARC curriculum is facilitated and led by graduate students studying audiology or speech and language pathology. During the program, each graduate student is paired with a hearing impaired person and their communication partner. The graduate student works with the couple over the course of the week, giving them a complete hearing test, evaluating their existing technology, introducing them to new technology, and providing them with methods and tools to facilitate communication.
Interactive learning is a core part of the SIARC workshop. The couples attend classes led by graduate students on topics such as communication strategies and coping strategies. To ensure that couples are able to incorporate the knowledge they gain from the classes into their daily lives, the curriculum emphasizes guided learning activities and real-life practice. At the end of each day, the couples have the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice by going out to a restaurant, attending an art course, or seeing a play.
Attending the evening activities with the workshop participants provides the students with unique insight into the challenges facing hearing impaired persons and their communication partners.
“The students experience something they wouldn’t see in the clinic. When we train them in the clinic, they may never see the entire process from fitting to use,” states Linda Thibodeau. “One of the most important things I have observed, is that in the afternoon, a student will be teaching the couple how to use the equipment and how to turn it on. When they go out to dinner in the evening, and hand the couple the microphone, the couple will not remember one word from the afternoon. So, hopefully, that imparts upon the students that you can’t just hand people this equipment in a 30 minute appointment. You need to arrange a group experience where they can practice using the technology that they are looking to integrate into the daily life.”
After attending the SIARC program, Linda Thibodeau hopes that students see the immense value of group rehab programs and consider introducing them at their future place of employment.
“Because SIARC is conducted in a university setting, the graduate students get validation for auditory rehabilitation. They find out that this week-long experience meant a lot for the participants, states Linda Thibodeau. “My hope is that I overdose the student on auditory rehabilitation so that they wouldn’t even think about selling hearing instruments in the future without it being part of a comprehensive program with classes and group interaction.”
Not only do the students and participants benefit from the workshop, but so do local businesses and facilities. In preparation for the evening activities, the graduate students often work with local restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues to ensure that they can accommodate SIARC participants.
“Generally, facilites were aware of the need for devices for persons with hearing loss, but used the devices so infrequently that they were not certain that they functioned or what was necessary for routine upkeep,” states Linda Thibodeau. “In preparation for SIARC workshop, a participating hotel purchased devices so that they could meet the requirements of the American Disabilities Act. This allowed the SIARC participants to try out different assistive devices in their hotel room, like alarm clocks and specialized telephones. But more importantly, it ensured that the hotel could provide these devices to other hearing impaired persons in the future.”
Linda Thibodeau aims to spread the SIARC program to university audiology programs across the United States. The first external university to offer the SIARC program was the University of Washington in Seattle. Last month, Linda Thibodeau served as a guest speaker at the 2013 SIARC at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. This event allowed graduate students at the University of Minnesota to experience the unique learning experience offered by SIARC. Linda has also partnered with the University of Sourthern Florida in Tampa to offer a SIARC program for their students next spring.
Linda Thibodeau joined the faculty of the University of Texas in Dallas in 1996. She has focused on research exploring the relationship between psychoacoustic processing and speech perception. She has also conducted research on auditory training approaches and assistive listening devices designed to enhance speech recognition.
For more information about the SIARC program, please feel free to send an email to Linda Thibodeau.