EHDI Day

Event Highlights Importance of Early Identification and Intervention

“It takes a village…” seemed to be the theme throughout this year’s Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Day March 11, 2011 at Marcello’s Father and Son Restaurant in Chicago.  Honored this year were: Nancy M. Young, MD, Head, Section of Otology & Neurotology, Children’s Memorial Hospital; Michelle Clyne, M.S. Ed., Project Reach: IL Deaf-Blind Services, Phillip J. Rock Center and School; and Susan Brosmith, M.A., Retired Elementary Principal, Illinois School for the Deaf and Parent Institute.  This year was also the first Guide By Your Side Parent Achievement Award given to Michele Westmaas, mother to Aubrey.

Karen Aguilar, Coalition Director of CHOICES for Parents, welcomed John Miller, Director of the Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission; Dr. Dana Suskind, Chapter Champion of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; and Ginger Mullin, EHDI Coordinator of Illinois, who all spoke of the importance of early identification and follow-up for infants who are identified with hearing loss.  And, a special “thank you” to the Illinois EHDI Program for sponsoring EHDI Day 2011!

Jennifer Huffman, parent of a child with hearing loss also spoke at the event of the challenges she faces raising a child, but that through the help of providers, who specialize in hearing loss, her family was guided on their path of raising her child with hearing loss. 

As noted during the event, “One provider cannot do it alone in the world of hearing loss, it takes a village.”

CHOICES could not agree more.  For more information about EHDI Day or our resource manual Children and Hearing Loss (available in English and Spanish), please contact Karen Aguilar, Coalition Director of CHOICES for Parents at 312.523.6400 or 866.733.8729 (outside of the Chicago area) or e-mail choicesforparents@yahoo.com.