NYC Children's
Services

Hear for the Future®

CHC’s children’s services offer a comprehensive approach to the delivery of pediatric care for children of all ages - infants to teenagers - who are deaf or hard of hearing. Your CHC clinicians will become part of the family’s team, providing counsel and educational resources along the path to hearing and communication.

Our program utilizes the auditory-oral approach and our goal for the majority of our children who are deaf and hard of hearing is the development of age-appropriate speech, language, and social skills to ensure academic and social success in a mainstream school.

Video of CHC Children's Support

Our Process

About our Process

Comprehensive developmental, speech-language, psycho-educational, audiological, and auditory processing evaluations for clients newborn through 18 years old
Once results are assessed, CHC’s team will work together to customize and recommend a therapeutic path for your family and give you all the information you need to make critical decisions on your child’s behalf

Pediatric Audiology

Were you told your newborn did not pass their hearing screening? What do you do now?

While there is a percentage of newborns that may not pass their first hearing screening, and this may be related to their small ear size or fluid in their ears both common in newborns, it is important that your infant be seen for a second hearing screening. If this second screening is not passed, the next steps are to see your pediatrician or a pediatric otologist to determine if fluid is present or not and to schedule an evaluation for a more in depth hearing test.

The hearing test of choice for a newborn

is an auditory brainstem response (ABR)

test, conducted while the baby sleeps.

This is a non-invasive physiological test

that will determine whether or not your

child has a hearing loss. If a hearing loss

is detected, testing can help determine

the type of hearing loss and the degree

of hearing loss (how much of a loss

is there). Click here to learn more
about children's hearing testing.

After this evaluation, our audiologist

will be able to provide test results and

recommendations for the next

steps. These steps often begin with a consultation with a

pediatric otolaryngologist who will provide any needed medical treatment.

If test results suggest that hearing aids and a program of speech and language therapy are needed, all necessary services are available at CHC including:

Fitting of hearing aids and the verification of hearing aid benefit using CAEP (see below)
Ongoing hearing tests by our specialized team of pediatric audiologists for frequent ongoing monitoring of hearing
Ongoing measurement of hearing aid benefit throughout your child’s life
Center-based speech, language, and listening therapies for babies and children of all ages (both on an individual and group basis)
Tele-health speech, language, and listening therapies for babies and children

Learn more about hearing testing.

No child is too young to begin using hearing aids or to begin speech, language, and listening therapies.

CAEP Testing

Hearing Aids for Children

CAEP Testing

The Center for Hearing and Communication in New York is pleased to offer cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) testing as part of our suite of renowned pediatric services.

CHC provides cortical assessment
CHC is now using specialized technology to determine the
benefit infants receive from their hearing aids. Cortical
assessment tells us about how amplified sound travels
through the auditory cortex. The presence of responses
suggests that hearing aids are programmed optimally in
order to provide benefit.
Assists audiologists in optimizing hearing aid programming
so that infants may benefit maximally from their hearing aids.
Serves as a counseling tool for the audiologist when discussing hearing aid use time with parents and other caregivers.
Monitors cortical responses of individuals with auditory processing disorders (APD).
Provides hearing aid verification for older children and adults who are neurologically impaired or multi-handicapped.

Hearing Aids for Children

Technology is ever-changing and with the addition of Bluetooth

connectivity and the use of smartphone apps, hearing aids have

become a way to connect to every aspect of our lives. When it

comes to fitting hearing aids on children, what may work for an

adult may not be appropriate for children and what may be preferred

by a child may also not be appropriate. It is important to work with

your pediatric audiologist to select the hearing aid that will provide

the best hearing benefit for your child.

For children these factors frequently arise as considerations:

Retention and fit
Hearing aid models used frequently in children need to be made more durable
FM connectivity
Ability to have flexibility in hearing aid programming over time
Battery compartments need to be tamper-resistant as batteries can be harmful if swallowed.
Use of hearing aids with other technologies, Bluetooth connectivity, use of smartphone apps
Ability to use remote microphones
Ability to pair with a cochlear implant if worn in one ear

At CHC we always measure the benefit of a hearing aid on an individual, whether an infant, child, or adult. For older children and adults we tend to rely on behavioral measures, that is, measuring the softest levels at which speech sounds can be heard and measuring the ability to understand speech at a variety of levels, both in quiet and in noise. For infants, however, we rely heavily on probe-microphone testing. This type of testing allows the audiologist to know just how much speech will be heard through the hearing aid. A very small tube is placed within the child’s ear with and without the hearing aid in place and the audiologist can compare different hearing aids settings and styles. Sometimes, this is not possible to do and then, computer simulations of this measure can be done with very accurate results.

We have access to a variety of pediatric hearing aids. To learn more visit our page on hearing aids.

Speech and Language Therapy

The diagnosis of hearing loss impacts adversely on all aspects of a

child’s language learning. Our goal for the children in our program is

the development of age-appropriate speech, language and social skills

that will ensure academic success in a mainstream school.

CHC’s young clients will face challenges as people with hearing loss

throughout their lives. We want to help them develop especially strong

communication skills and self-awareness so they can access the same

opportunities as anyone else.

Our signature combination of individual and group therapy enables

successful development of the most essential communication skills:

Listening and comprehension
Articulation and speech
Executive function and pragmatic conversational/discourse
Ability to self-advocate and navigate without adult mediation

To learn more visit our page on Children's Speech and Language Therapy

Educational Support

Educational services at CHC are designed to help bridge the gaps

between therapies, audiological services, and a student’s classroom

environment based on their auditory needs. CHC’s certified Teachers

of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are specially trained to provide support

services that will enhance the academic experience. Our goal is to

contribute to each student's ability to reach their true potential in the

least restrictive classroom environment.

To learn more visit our page on Educational Support

Emotional Health and Wellness Support

The Emotional Health and Wellness Center is dedicated to improving the lives children and families that are impacted by hearing loss. We create a therapeutic environment promoting the most positive emotional development and embedded in the belief that children need to feel respected, valued, able to build trust, love themselves, and feel safe in the world.

From the initial session with parents throughout treatment with the child, we provide mental health services in an accessible manner that takes into account each child’s culture, language, and preferred mode of communication. This greatly contributes to the healthy development of identity and self-esteem.

Children’s emotional wellbeing is important to us and we are here to support and build an environment that allows children to develop the resilience to overcome and cope with difficulties that they may face.

NYC's Early Intervention

CHC is an approved provider of services through the Early Intervention Program (EIP) and Deaf Infant Program (DIP).

Facts about the early intervention program and related services

it's for children less than three years of age who have or are suspected of having a developmental delay and/or disability
Services are provided at no out-of-pocket cost to parents
Health insurance may be accessed for reimbursement for early intervention
services provided to eligible children and their families
Eligibility for the early intervention program can be determined only by
State-approved evaluators under contract with the municipality
If a child is found eligible for the early intervention program,
all needed early intervention services are identified in
collaboration with the parent and must be authorized by the
municipality
The municipality will arrange for service providers, considering the
individual needs of the child and family, to deliver services
authorized by the municipality.

Contact the early intervention agency in your area:

New York City: call 311 and ask for early intervention
Westchester: 914-813-5094 (v)
New York State Growing Up Healthy Hotline: 800-522-5006 (v)

For questions about Early Intervention please reach out to Dana Selznick at dselznick@chchearing.org or 917-305-7855.

We also have a variety of family workshops, both in-person and virtually, happening throughout the year. Be sure to check out our Family Resource Center.