Meet Audiologist Cheryl Lokanis
Cheryl Lokanis, Au.D. CCC-A, ABA was born in the Philippines and moved to Olympia with her family when she was three years old. When she was younger she wanted to be a garbage collector because she was fascinated with the giant trucks that drove around her neighborhood. While she attended the University of Washington she had a wide variety of interests for her future including geology, psychology, physiotherapy, social work and even statistics. She settled on audiology after taking a speech and hearing sciences course and received her bachelors degree in speech communication. After that she took several years off to travel the world, and then went to Western Washington University and received her masters degree in audiology, and immediately following that she received her doctorate from the University of Florida.
She started as an intern for ESHC in 1997, which eventually turned into a full time position. Her favorite things about working for the clinic are the fast-paced environment, the diverse patient load and providing high quality care to our patients. She also enjoys establishing relationships with our patients, as well as working with audiology student interns. She loves being able to pass along clinical knowledge to the interns, as well as being challenged by their questions and research, which she says is a great way to keep her on her toes.
In Cheryl’s spare time she lives vicariously through her twin girls Sarah and Alex who are in kindergarten. Her family often enjoys hiking, ski trips, camping and traveling. You can also find Cheryl hosting dinner parties where she gets to show off her cooking skills, and you can even find her posting food blogs on Facebook.
HLA Meeting and Free Caption Call Phones
The Bellevue chapter of the Hearing Loss Association has an interesting presentation scheduled for this Saturday (February 11th) at 1pm at Lake Sammamish Foursquare Church. The topic, “Being our Best (Hard of Hearing) Selves…effectively managing challenging situations,” will be lead by social worker and psychoanalyst Jacqui Metzer.
Jacqui has a long history with hearing loss and stated using hearing instruments as a young teenager. She got her first cochlear implant 14 years ago and has a lot to share about hearing loss, management and difficult communication situations. Jacqui also teaches to doctoral students at the University of Washington in a course titled “Listening to Hearing Loss Counseling Concepts.”
Additionally the HLA group informed us that CAPTIONCALL captioned phones are temporarily free during a promotion that lasts until February. Captioncall phones are both amplified and offer captions. To take advantage of this offer contact Adam Young at 206 295 7217 or ayoung@captioncall.com.
We hope you’ll be able to join this group for a wonderful presentation!
Parents and Teens Not Talking About Hearing Loss
Over a year ago we blogged about new research that showed that 1 in 5 teens in the United States showing signs of hearing loss. Knowing this information we were shocked to read a new poll that came out from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital that shows many parents don’t think their teens are at risk.
The poll asked parents of teens ages 13-17 about noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and despite the recent increase in hearing loss in teenagers, two-thirds of parents report that they have not talked to their teen about hearing loss. Even more shocking was the data that showed more than three-quarters of the parents polled believe their teens are not at risk.
Hearing loss in teenagers can lead to difficulties and frustration at school and in social situations. With NIHL damage to the delicate auditory system is not reversible, however damage is preventable. Below are some tips from our doctors that parents and teens can take toward hearing conservation:
Volume limiting headphones/earbuds: these devices look just like regular headphones or earbuds but limit the sound output to 85 decibels or less. That is a significant reduction in the sound allowing teens to listen for longer periods of time.
Ear protection: if you know you are going to be around loud sounds such as concerts or doing chores around the house use earprotection to safeguard your delicate auditory system. From over the counter earplugs to custom plugs from your audiologist, any effort to limit exposure to sound will make a difference.
Sound breaks: take out the earbuds, or step outside during a loud concert for a few minutes to allow your ears time to rest. Limiting the amount of exposure over time is important in preserving your hearing abilities.
We encourage parents to take the time to talk to their teens! Take a few minutes to educate each other on the dangers of NIHL and the ways in which it can be prevented on our website.
Seattle Deaf Film Festival
For the first time in the Northwest, audiences can expect to see films created by, for, or about the deaf community, in generes ranging from documentary to drama to comedy to animation, in the Seattle Deaf Film Festival. The event will be held at the University of Washington, March 30 through April 1. The festival is presented by Deaf Spotlight, a non-profit that focuses on the culture and creativity of the deaf community and is sponsored by the UW’s ASL (American Sign Language) and Deaf Studies Program.
Feature films and shorts have been submitted from the U.S., England, France, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, South Africa, and Mexico. All films will have subtitles, including subtitled translations when the actors sign rather than speak.
The Seattle Deaf Film Festival will be held in 120 Kane Hall. A schedule of films and ticket prices will be posted on Deaf Spotlight’s website in early February, at www.deafspotlight .com.
Get Fit
For the new year, many of us have set a resolution to “get fit!” While you may be concentrating on the tradmill, you might also want to consider adding a “work out” for your brain in the new year!
Our brains are complex, with different areas and functions that can all be enhanced through mental exercise. We’ve all heard the term “use it or loose it,” and for the brain this is true in many respects. When you “work out” your brain there are both short-term and long-term benefits. Short-term you will see an improvement in concentration and memory along with sustained mental clarity under stressful situations. And long-term studies have shown that exercising your brain can create “reserves” that help protect individuals against potential problems such as Alzheimer’s.
Additionally, you can help improve your listening skills through auditory training. At ESHC we encourage all our hearing patients to enhance their listening skills through LACE, an at home “workout” for your ears. The benefits seen by those who have completed the program are astonishing.
Other tips for enhancing brain power in the new year include;
- For stress management: a 5-minute visualization, combining deep and regular breathings with seeing in our mind’s eye beautiful landscapes and/ or remembering times in our past when we have been successful at a tough task
- For short-term memory: try a series subtracting 7 from 200 (200 193 186 179…), or a series involving multiplication (2,3 4,6 6,9 8,12…) or exponential series (2 4 8 16 32 64…) the goal is not to be a math genius, simply to train and improve our short-term memory. Another way is to try and remember our friends telephone numbers.
- In general: try something different every day, no matter how little. Take a different route to work. Talk to a different colleague. Ask an unexpected question. Approach every day as a living experiment, a learning opportunity.
Meet Audiologist Terry Limb
Terry Limb, AuD grew up in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. As a child he knew he wanted to be a professional of some sort, but didn’t discover audiology until his college years. He attended the University of Washington where he received his bachelors and maters degrees, and then went on to receive his doctorate from the University of Florida. Terry knew audiology was the right route for him because of the opportunity he got to help people. He also enjoys the profession because it is very evidenced based, and he likes the vast amount of technology he gets to explore in the world of personal listening devices.
One of his favorite things about working at ESHC is being a “people focused” clinic both with patients as well as staff. He also enjoys how the clinic pushes the boundaries of technology, and the ability we have to offer patients innovations that you can’t find anywhere else. You can also find Terry working on national technology panels to help spearhead the future of innovation with personal listening devices.
In his spare time Terry likes boating, spending time with his family, working on projects around the house, as well as participating in international Missions trips.
Hearing Loss and Technology
In a recent article from the Atlantic, “How the iPod and Other Audio Devices are Destroying Your Ears,” they discuss the damage we are inducing on our ears with everyday use of portable music players. The volume we blast into our ears day after day can be more than 10 times as loud as the recommended listening setting and the sensory damage caused by prolonged listening is irreversible.
What may start out as difficulty discerning some speech sounds can continue on toward serious hearing loss and other health problems including hypertension and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) from prolonged exposure. This is known as Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL).
NIHL occurs, when sensitive cells in the inner ear are exposed to loud noises. These “hair cells,” which convert sound energy into electrical impulses that are sent to the brain, can’t grow back once they are damaged.
According to the National Institutes of Health, “long or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss” — noise louder than city traffic but not as loud as a lawnmower. The louder the sound, the shorter the time it takes to damage hair cells.
At maximum volume, an iPod reaches about 103 decibels, which can cause permanent hearing loss in a matter of minutes while listening through ear buds. In-ear headphones, like the earbuds that come with an iPod, send loud music straight into your ear and directly toward sensitive cells.
For regular iPod users, the negative effects of loud listening might not be immediately noticeable. NIHL can be gradual and not noticed until it is too late. One of the greatest things we can do for ourselves is to prevent loss by being aware, and using hearing protection when possible. Learn more about your hearing health and how you can protect it here.
Men hear better than Woman?
Many of us know the situation; at a party you would like to talk to a person but this can be quite exhausting due to the background noise. You may have even experienced it this past weekend during your new years celebration. The words of your conversation partner are drowned out by the conversation of others and the music. High concentration is placed on the voice of the person talking, and separating out that voice from the background noises around us, causing a stressed attention system. This is known as “the cocktail party phenomenon”.
In recent research it has been found that men hear better at parties and are more capable of separating relevant sounds from the background noise.
Natural selection and evolution
The researchers from the Neurological Clinic of the University Hospital and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (HIH) in Tübingen, Germany, found that the audio-spatial abilities of men are more highly developed than those of women. The researchers think that men’s ability to hear better at parties may be due to the different evolutionary requirements of the sexes. Over time men have developed these spatial abilities as a result of natural and sexual selection throughout human evolution.
“Men were the ones who hunted for food. Here, attention performance was extremely important. Thus prey could be localised by noise before it could be seen,” said Ida Zündorf and Prof. Hans Otto Karnath from the University Hospital in Tübingen.
The study
In the study, the participants were asked to listen to sounds and determine the location of the sound source. In a first test, sounds were presented one at a time and both women and men accomplished the task with great accuracy. In a further test, several sounds were presented at the same time and the participants had to focus on and localise only one sound. The latter was much more difficult for women. In some cases women even thought that the sounds were coming from the opposite direction.
Meet Audiologist Thomas Norwood
Thomas Norwood, Au. D. has lived in Portland, Los Angeles and Buffalo, New York, but his family settled in Seattle in the early 1960s. As a child he wanted to be a variety of things including a garbage man, an architect and a graphic designer. As an adult he went on to pursue a career as an audiologist starting at the University of Washington where he obtained his bachelor of science degree in communication disorders as well as his masters in speech pathology and audiology. He then received his doctor of audiology degree from the University of Florida. Tom is one of the founders of our clinic and has been here since we opened in 1979. In his years at ESHC he has most enjoyed all of his interactions and memories with patients and staff.
In his spare time Tom likes to travel, listen to music, jog, read biographies, and enjoy the successes of his talented children. He also likes to take advantage of the sunny weather in Palm Springs where his other home is located.
Hearing Loss in the NFL
NFL San Diego Chargers Cheerleader, Melissa Adams, lost 85% of her hearing when she was five, which is also the age she began to dance. She held onto her dream to become a member of the San Diego cheerleading squad and after going through the tryout process five times, she made it onto the team two years ago.
To make up for her hearing disability, Adam’s memorizes each dance start to finish and has a teammate simply tap her on the shoulder as her cue to start. “If the music were to turn off it wouldn’t matter for me because I would just keep going,” she told FOX5 in San Diego.
Adams is a great example of being able to do anything that you put your mind to. She hopes to be an inspiration to others with disabilities and aspires to start her own non-profit for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the future.