Hear It!
Quadrimester
Newsletter from the
Audiology Committee

VISION:
Audiology Committee
has a global vision tofacilitate better
understanding,knowledge and careof the auditory
system and its
disorders.

IALP Congress Auckland, New Zealand, 20-24 August 2023
After 7yrs of planning, a global pandemic and a recession, the Congress Planning
Committee were delighted to finally welcome 1,000 delegates from 48 countries
around the world to Auckland, New Zealand for the 32rd IALP Congress and thestart of the celebration of 100yrs of IALP.
Visitors were warmly welcomed to Aotearoa, New Zealand by the local iwi(indigenous tribe) of the land, Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei and the honorable MaramaDavidson (member of Parliament) in the opening ceremony. This marked thestart of five fabulous day of waiata (singing), informative oral presentations andmany moments to network over delicious kai (food) with both old and new
friends.
The invited keynotes were Prof Gail Gillon, Prof Georgia Malandraki, Prof De
Wet Swanepoel and the WHO representative, Antony Duttine. These rangatahi(leaders) inspired, challenged, motivated, and moved the audience. The
discussants did a fabulous job of extending these topics and sharing their own
insights. See here for more details - https://ialpauckland2023.org/speakers-mainreports/.
Wrapped around the scientific program was an equally energetic social program
which included a half day excursion around wonderful local sites and an
unforgettable gala dinner. The Congress dinner featured The Sandman, Marcus
Winter who wowed the audience with his blend of storytelling with art and music– utter magic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhDhU6_co58. The evening
was topped off with an overcrowded dance floor grooving into the early hours of
the next day!
This Congress will go down in IALP history as the Congress in which delegatessang their hearts out and fed their souls. This could not have gone ahead without
the years of work put in by the Congress Planning Committee who were membersof the New Zealand Speech-language Therapists’ Association (NZSTA) and the
New Zealand Audiological Society and especially the NZSTA kaumātua (elder)
Mātua Rukingi Huapapa and the IALP Executive Committee and Board.
Kia ora!
Philippa M. Friary

November 2023
VOL 4. NO. 3

Congress Co-ChairREPORT
Professor Christie Yoshinaga-Itano

32nd World Congress of the IALP, 20-24th August 2022, Auckland, New
Zealand:The IALP Audiology Committee held a workshop
on the role of the audiologists within transdisciplinary
teams include cleft palate, reading disorders, autism
spectrum disorder, and intellectual disabilities. Dr
Shaza Saleh moderated the session and the panel
consisted of Professors Christie Yoshinaga-Itano,
Katrin Neumann, Mridula Sharma, and Suzanne
Purdy.
The New Zealand audiology planning committee did
an excellent job in organizing the audiology presentations for the IALP conference. The
support of the New Zealand Audiological Society as a result of the work done by Karen Fullerand Holly Teagle resulted in the registration and attendance of about 300 audiologists, one third
all of the attendees of this year’s IALP conference. We think that this year’s IALP conferencein New Zealand had the highest number of audiologists ever attending, at least in our memories.
Many of the conference presentations, about 2/3 – ¾ of the presentations were on topics thatwould be interesting to both Speech/Language Pathologists and Audiologists. Audiologists
were included not only for the Audiology keynote by Dr. DeWet Swanepoel but also for the
Speech/Language pathology keynote presentations. We believe that this was the first time thataudiology perspectives were included in all keynotes in the conference. Our audiology
panelists were outstanding even on topics that one does not typically think about audiology.
There were a few sessions in the speech/language strands that also included audiology
presentations, such as autism. When integration of audiology and speech pathology is attained
throughout the whole conference it provides audiology attendees with more than one choicefor each time slot.
There is quite an imbalance in the number of speech/language offerings and the number ofaudiology offerings each time slot. Audiology has typically had a single session each time slot.
However, if Audiology continues to have one-third of the attendees, it would be an excellent
opportunity to continue to ask for a better balance of audiology and speech/language sessions.
In the Speech Pathology strands, there were about 4 different topic choices each time slot.
There were some excellent presentations at the conference. The Audiology committee panelthat included cleft palate, auditory processing, intellectual disorders, and autism was wellattended and well-received. It was standing room only and the question-answer interaction
was outstanding.
The time slots tended to follow the medical model of ten minute session. There is a constantpull between having as much representation as possible, with the largest number ofpresentations and the consideration of more indepth longer sessions that would allow

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participants to take away more information, knowledge and skills. Perhaps a blend of ten
minute and 20 minute sessions could be considered.
The New Zealand audiologists did a fantastic job of including a large number of
rehabilitation/habilitation topics which would be of interest to both speech/language
pathologists and audiologists. I heard remarks from participants that they were able to learn
more about re/habilitation across the age range at the IALP conference than in any otheraudiology conference. So kudos to the New Zealand planning team.
The field of audiology has become quite specialized over the years and that means that there
are a number of jobs that are exclusive to children while others are exclusive to adults. It is
unclear whether audiologists who wish to gain up-to-date knowledge pertinent to their
particular workplace would opt to attend IALP if only half of the presentations are applicableto their patient’s age range. This may be something that should be considered in the future if
we wish to attract the largest number of audiology participants to IALP conferences. Greater
integration of audiology topics in all speech/language topics may have addressed this issue.
However, that would have required an audiology representative on all planning committees
and encouragement for proposals on specific topics from audiologists.
Only one presentation focused on electrophysiology. Because of the significant amount ofresearch that is now being done with evoked potentials, future conferences might draw moreaudiologists as well as speech language pathologists with a significant increase in offerings.
Electrophysiology is of interest to both speech/language and audiology. Other areas, such as
cutting edge amplification technology were not included in the program, nor were topics suchas gene therapies, stem cell work, or information on etiologies of hearing loss and treatments
for example viruses. However, as stated earlier, the offerings were outstanding, focused andof great interest to both speech/language and audiology.
The conference had an excellent array of presentations on rehabilitation topics, such as
counselling, quality of life. Perhaps one way to expand audiology offerings is for eachcommittee to an audiology representative. A number of IALP committee topics are pertinent
to both audiologists and speech/language pathologists:
1)

Multilingual and Multicultural Affairs

2)

Aphasia3)Child Language

4)

Cleft Palate and Cranialfacial

5)

Telepractice Research and Practice6)

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

In order to accomplish this type of integration the Audiology committee would need toencourage proposal submission across these topics. Additionally, a number of audiology topics
were in the program under speech/language sessions but they was not a way to easily accessthese offerings and they could be easily missed when going through the program.

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If even one of the offerings in these speech/language topic areas could have a number ofaudiology presentations within them, there would be significantly more integration between
audiology and speech/language.
Topics such as amplification technology issues for cleft palate and cranialfacial populations or
middle ear issues of this population and communication outcomes of a population with almost
universal issues with hearing would be interesting, telepractice research and practice foraudiology diagnosis, screening, amplification fitting (Hearing aids and cochlear implants) andintervention services could potentially be combined with early intervention/speech language
therapy delivery through telepractice.
Many topics within multilinguistic and multicultural issues – especially the topic of early
identification/intervention and home language priority – introduction of language of thecountry – and outcomes related to multilingual competence are of equal interest to bothspeech/language pathologists and audiologists. However, we have not yet achieved integrationof audiology topics within these strands at the conference.
With more audiology representation, child language could also be encouraged to include
auditory processing disorders and the overlap with significant language impairment anddyslexia should be an included topic, This might also be a way to integrate school screening
for child language with hearing screening in the schools. With the advent of more and more
automated technology, it has become easier to integrate child language and hearing screening
in the schools.
It should also be possible to integrate sessions on Augmentative and Alternative
Communication strategies that are being successfully used with both children with hearing loss
and additional disabilities as well as those who have hearing loss only. There are clinicalstudies with collaborators from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Denver Children’s
Hospital. Aphasia especially receptive aphasia and auditory processing and hearing loss would
be appropriate topics for IALP.
The presence and visibility of Audiology in IALP was greatly increased and enhanced as aresult of the New Zealand IALP and the work of the New Zealand audiologists.
Highlighting global work particularly in low-resourced countries is essential and could be oneof the hallmarks of IALP audiology. Talks by Professor Vidya Ramkumar and Professor
DeWet Swanepoel were exceptional. This audiology 1 breakout could also have been listed asboth Audiology and Telepractice , as well as Multi-lingual/Multicultural– so that thoseinterested in Telepractice in SLP might also attend. It would be fantastic if it were notcompeting, however, with another Telepractice session. Audiology 5 was on the topic ofintellectual disabilities and hearing loss and was of great interest to SLP attendees but waslabeled Audiology 5 and therefore, not as easily accessible to SLP attendees.
One drawback (though a great problem to have) to having mixed SLP/Audiology attendees ineach of the sessions was that the rooms were not large enough to accommodate more than the
Audiology attendees. So in many session, there was standing room only. Quite anaccomplishment for the New Zealand Audiology team!!

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Audiology IALP committee should encourage labeling sessions differently in order toencourage more cross-discipline attendance. For example, Audiology 2 session was aboutsocial emotional wellbeing and quality of life – topics that are of great interest to SLPs.
A dream and goal for future IALP conferences would be to have a minimum of two audiology
strands – one in pediatrics and one in adults that would enhance registration of audiologists for
future IALP conferences. Congratulations again to the great work of the New Zealandaudiology team for their excellent conference.

Professor Katrin Neumann
Dept. of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology, University Hospital
Muenster, Germany

Work of Audiology Committee Members in the
Rehabilitation Program of the WHO
According to the WHO, approximately 2.4 billion people
worldwide live with a health condition that would benefit from rehabilitation (Cieza et al.
2021). There was a of 63% between 1990 and 2019 of people who would benefit fromrehabilitation. Rehabilitation aims to optimize the functioning of people with a corresponding
need, secure their independence, reduce disability, enable them to participate in education, andwork. It expands the focus of health beyond preventative and curative care to ensure that people
can remain as independent as possible and participate in a meaningful life. In the future, theneed for rehabilitation will further increase due to the changes in people's
health status and the demographic population chan ges. People will beliving longer and have more chronic diseases and disabilities that require
rehabilitation. Nevertheless, rehabilitation is not prioritized in countries
and is under-resourced. Therefore, in 2017 WHO launched its initiative“Rehabilitation 2030”. One of the main activities of this initiative was the Dr Shaza Salehdevelopment of the “Package of Interventions for Rehabilitation” (PIR).
This package provides information on rehabilitation for the following target
users: (a) Ministries of Health, to plan and budget packages forrehabilitation and integrate them into the national health services, (b)service planners and providers, to plan the integration and delivery of
rehabilitation services, (c) academics, to inform the development ofcurricula and training materials, and (d) researchers, to address Dr Limor Lavierehabilitation in future research (https://www.who.int/activities/integratingrehabilitation-into-health-systems/).
For the development of the PIR, initially 20 health conditions related to different disease areasthat could benefit most from rehabilitation were selected according to their prevalence anddisability weights from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2016 study (Lancet 2017).
Hearing loss was among these conditions. Thereafter, a Technical Working Group identified
evidence-based rehabilitation interventions for each area, using Clinical Practice Guidelines
and Systematic Cochrane Reviews. For each area, a Development Group then confirmed,

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corroborated, and expanded the evidence found. The 12 members of the Hearing Loss
Development Group included three were members of the IALP Audiology Committee (Katrin
Neumann, Limor Lavie, and Shaza Saleh). Over several months of work and many virtual
meetings led by WHO, the Development Group identified the necessary resource needs andallocated them to the service platforms. Afterwards, a Peer Review Group conducted domainspecific external peer review.
PIR measures relevant to hearing rehabilitation includes:










screening for cognitive, mental, and visual impairments;
audiometric assessment of hearing impairment at the screening and diagnostic levels,
including speech audiometry;assessment of the speech, language, and communication abilities of the individualwith hearing impairment;
provision of hearing aids, cochlear or other hearing implants, and assistive
technology;
instruction in the use of hearing technology; auditory, speech, (phonetic and sign)
language, and communication therapy;
assessment of educational, school, and vocational status and counseling, training andsupport in these areas;
assessment of participation in social life; structured group activities; self-management
counseling and training; peer support;
assessment of family and caregiver needs and their communication strategies with theindividual;family-centered interventions, training and support for family members, families andcaregivers.

Thus, the rehabilitation program advocated by WHO considers not only the hearing, speech,
and language status of a person with hearing impairment and the fitting with hearing
technology, but also the cognitive, mental, and visual functioning; the preferred mode ofcommunication the communication strategies and skills, the involvement with family,
caregivers, peer groups, immediate community, and society at large; and the support a person
receives from those mentioned.
Internally at WHO, an alpha version of each PIR has been produced and tested for each disease
area. Online and print materials have been produced and made available to the Ministries of
Health of the WHO Member States and to the public. The PIR was launched on the 10-11th
July 2023 during the 3rd Global Rehabilitation 2030 meeting, together with the foundation of
a World Rehabilitation Alliance. Following this launch and a promotional campaign, thematerials were integrated into the WHO OneHealth tool. The IALP Audiology Committee
members are proud to have been involved in this important WHO work with global impact.
References:
Cieza A, Causey K, Kamenov K, Hanson SW, Chatterji S, Vos T. Global estimates of the needfor rehabilitation based on the Global Burden of Disease study 2019: a systematic analysis for
the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet. 2021 Dec 19;396(10267):2006-2017.

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GBD 2016 Disease and Injury and Prevalence Collaborators. Global, regional, and national
incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195
countries, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016.
Lancet 2017;390:1211-59.
World Health Organization. Package of interventions for rehabilitation. Module 6. Sensory
conditions. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023 (Package of interventions forrehabilitation).
Licence:CC
BY-NC-SA
3.0
IGO.
Availableathttps://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/370508/9789240071223-eng.pdf?sequence=1.

Professor Wahab Oyedele Owolawi
Professor and Pioneer Head of Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Therapy,
University of Medical Sciences, Ondo State, Nigeria

Audiology Training and Services in Nigeria- The
Journey So Far
Historical BackgroundA full audiological department was established in 2021 in Nigeria at the first specialized
medical and health institution in Nigeria, the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo-City in
Ondo State. This university was established by the Ondo State Government of Nigeria.
Audiology and Speech-Language Therapy are housed under the first in the country Faculty of
Medical Rehabilitation along with other courses such as Prosthetics and Orthotics,
Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy.
Previously, Audiology and Speech Pathology were studied as a course at the premier
University of Nigeria, the University of Ibadan under the Department of Special Education,
under the Faculty of Education. The Department of Special Education was established by thefederal government of Nigeria in the academic year of 1976-1977. According to Alade, 1989,
the academic programs provided by the Department of Special Education comprised of Speech
Pathology and Audiology, Education of the visually handicapped children, Education of thehearing impaired, Education of the mentally retarded and learning-disabled children. At the
inception it was a three-year Bachelor of Education degree. In the academic year of 1987-1988,
the program was upgraded to a four-year Bachelor of Education program with additionalcourses such as Education of the physically handicapped children and Education of the gifted
and talented children. The program later expanded by adding post-graduate courses withspecialization. Students started graduating with master’s degree in education withspecialization in audiology and speech-language therapy or other areas of interest within thedepartment. A PhD program also was added.
As expressed earlier, a full-fledged audiology training program in a medical/health institution
did not occur until 2021 in Nigeria. In addition to the University of Ibadan, another federal
institution named University of Jos, has a module of audiology within the Hearing Handicap
course in the Department of Special Education.

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Due to the staggering high prevalence of 8.5 million people with disabling hearing loss inNigeria (WHO, 2018) and the gross inadequacy of manpower, it became imperative to work
towards more academic and clinically enriched audiology training programs in the country.
After several attempts of approaching Universities to create an audiology program in Nigeria(private and public institutions), one institution indicated interest through the College of Health
Sciences Provost (Professor Adesegun O. Fatusi). It was wonderful news when the University(Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) senate and council gave a positive nod to anchoring
the program. Unfortunately, the program did not start. This may have been due to funding andother possible ancillary issues.
The unique opportunity came when National Universities Commission (NUC), the universities
regulating agency, initiated a plan to overhaul the Nigerian Universities academic curriculum
to be in tandem with the realities of the 21st century and beyond. Audiology and speechlanguage therapy programs were on the agenda. Professor Adesegun O. Fatusi, who moved as
Provost of Health Sciences of Obafemi Awolowo University to the University of Medical
Sciences, Ondo-City as Vice Chancellor, did not waste time in nominating both me and Prof.
Julius Ademokoya of University of Ibadan, Special Education Department to represent
Audiology and Speech-Language Therapy at NUC respectively.
Just as the curriculum was being developed, the Federal Government of Nigeria established a
University of Health Sciences (Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun, Osun
State) with one of its major programs being Audiology. Fortunately, the curriculum foraudiology and speech-language therapy programs received approval from NUC and wereadopted as a template for other similar programs to be established in the country.
The Allied Health sub-committee of the NUC recommended that henceforth all audiology andspeech pathology programs, being clinical courses, should be placed in medical/health-related
institutions rather than the education faculty. Employing faculty is one of the current challenges
faced by the new audiology program. Dr. James Hall, 3rd and Dr. Jackie Clark are volunteering
as two adjuncts faculty members. We do immensely appreciate their offer of assistance. Moreassistance in terms of staff support, equipment, books and journals as well as collaboration
with the University is much appreciated.
The audiology program was verified by the NUC team a few weeks ago and the program wasgiven the green light to begin! There are currently 21 students who have chosen to study
Audiology (B.Aud). The program kicks off this academic year 2023/2024. Audiology training
program has ultimately come to birth in Nigeria. Appreciation goes to the Vice Chancellor,
Professor Adesegun O. Fatusi for his passion, commitment, and unrelenting effort at seeing toit that audiology takes root in Nigeria as a 5-year rigorous training program comparable to otherclinical courses in Nigerian universities and as an internationally recognized course of study.

References:
Alade Eunice B. (1989). Audiological Development in Nigeria’s Premier University. Journalof Special Education.
WHO. (2018). Prevalence level of disabling hearing loss in Nigeria.

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Committee

Committee member and email contact

Role in Audiology Committee

Christine Yoshinago Itano(christie.yoshi@colorado.edu)

Chair-Audiology Sub-Committee on Scientific Publications

Doris Lewis(drlewis@uol.com.br)

Chair- Audiology Sub-Committee on S&T Agencies

Limor Lavie(llavie@welfare.haifa.ac.il)

Chair-Audiology Sub-Committee on Hearing Technology

Owolawi Wahab Oyedele(deleowolawi@yahoo.com)

Chair, Audiology Sub-Committee on Facilitating
Audiological Services in Mid and Low-income countries inAfricaShaza Saleh(shazasaleh@googlemail.com)

Chair-Audiology Sub-Committee on Cochlear Implant andother Technology applications

Mridula Sharma(mridula.sharma@mq.edu.au)

Chair Audiology Committee and Chair- Audiology SubCommittee on Scientific Queries and Symposium

Riki Taitelbaum(rikits@ariel.ac.il)

Chair-Audiology Sub-Committee on Academic
Membership Enrolment and GuidanceTraci Flynn(Traci.Flynn@newcastle.edu.au)

Chair-Audiology Sub- Committee on Scientific Newsletter

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