Gearing Up for the All About Audiology Summit
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In a special edition of the All About Audiology podcast, Dr. Lilach Saperstein is excited to share the inside scoop about the All About Audiology Summit. The summit will feature 20 speakers and conversations that will help guide you along your journey. The Summit is taking place from September 19th till September 22nd. Tune in to learn where to purchase your FREE ticket and information about the guests.
Guests who will be featured at the All About Audiology Summit,
Please note that the following list is not in any specific order:
For more resources and research visit:
All About Audiology Facebook group
And the Prodana pay-it-forward platform here: https://prodana.org/practioner/lilach-saperstein/audiology-counseling–dr–lilach-saperstein
Lilach Saperstein:
Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. This is a special recording for you guys. This is Dr. Lilach Saperstein, and I am so honored to invite you to the All About Audiology Summit. After three years of running this amazing podcast and hearing so much from the amazing participation that we’ve had over different retreats, workshops, and The Support Group, The Connect and Advocate Group – all these different things that we’ve done as a community. I’ve learned from all of you and heard from so many of you how helpful it is to take some of those explanations, and discussions, and experiences with audiology on the go, or outside the podcast, or in a space and environment where you’re much more able, and comfortable, and receptive to having these things. Because in the clinic – when you’re in the audiology clinic – or you’re at the hearing test, you’re at the audiologist office, time in the clinic is precious and limited. And it can feel like there’s all this pressure, you have to do all the testing, and the fitting, and the mapping. And there’s this energy like you have to understand everything all at once [through] discussing these really big lifelong decisions. And they have to be made soon. But also there’s all these feelings that come up and all of these emotions that you don’t necessarily know that, that’s what’s happening. So you want to ask all your questions and gather all your information and resources. But it’s not always so easy to do that in the moment. And from the audiologist side it’s the same because audiologists are really doing everything, having your child on the focus as it should be during those appointments. But sometimes audiologist really wants to say ‘hey, how are you doing?’ with the parents and the family members who are there. Your journey is also happening the same time as your child’s of course. So I really believe that putting the parents experience at the center is number one. It’s my vision with the podcast and everything I’ve done. So I had the idea of making this mega summit event with 20 incredible speakers, so I cannot wait to invite you to the All About Audiology Summit. The dates are September 19 to the 22nd. But even if you’re hearing this after that, we are going to have all the recordings available. So definitely check out https://allaboutaudiology.com/summit/ to sign up. If you come during the days of the summit, the videos and the recordings will be available for 24 hours free of charge. So I’m really really excited. And after that if anyone wants to purchase the entire bundle of all the recordings with their transcripts and special offers from our speakers that will be available as well.
So I just want to run through the amazing speakers we have just so that you know who to come and see and to encourage you to come, and attend, or be a part of the summit in whatever way works for you. Okay, so we have different categories, right so definitely some audiologists talking about various topics, some speech language pathologists, and also Deaf and Hard of Hearing adults themselves. And also advocates, and parents, writers and coaches. Okay, so let’s dive it. Here’s what I gotta tell you. First of all, there’s Abbi Perets. Abbi Perets was on the podcast a while back talking about her son who has microtia, but also her entire family and their journey also with another child in the family who was sick with leukemia and all the different things. She’s been through a lot of different parts of the parenting journey with children with special needs, and as well as being a freelance writer and teaching others how to be freelance writers. So Abbi Perets is fabulous. We have a great conversation in the summit [called] Business Success As a Special Needs Mom.
You definitely want to come to the talk with Dr. Angela Loucks Alexander, who you may know from her TED talk about Auditory Processing Disorder. We talked about how the future of audiology is in the brain. Okay, we really want to support our children’s needs and accommodations.
So after that, I think you all know Dr. Michelle Hu. And she shares more about her personal journey and mission. She also has been on the podcast in the past.
I also invited my husband. Dr. Yona Saperstein is a family physician. And we have quite a chat about what your doctor really thinks of you. [We also spoke about] How to Talk to your kids’ doctor and what doctors are really needing to know and what they’re interested in from that perspective. So that was kind of fun to do. You get to meet my hubby.
Germaine Graham, is an SLP and we talked a lot about how things are different at home versus at school. She’s got [her] deafinitely communicating Instagram account and doing the ABC series right now. So definitely check that out on Instagram with Germaine. And our presentation together was really, really interesting. Our conversation [was] on taking a deep breath and trying to do things in bite sized pieces.
Janna Cowper, hard of hearing mama on Instagram. The talk was really about how her journey growing up [with] Hard of Hearing is very different from that of her children who are also Hard of Hearing and how it’s okay that they’re different. That was such a moving conversation we had, and I love Janna. She has also been on the podcast before so you can also hear more of her story there.
Dr. Kathleen Wallace is an audiologist I went to graduate school with. and she presented on third party disability, which means like – well, you have to come to the talk to hear more about it – but it’s all about how if one person in the family has a disability, then actually it impacts the entire family and impacts siblings, parents, and friends and [how] everybody in that environment also has some elements of accessibility needs as being a family member to somebody with disabilities. So that was a really important presentation that she made for the summit.
Do you remember Kalina Powell who came on the podcast a little while back? [who is also known as] DeafQueenBoss, who was also writing a book about her experiences growing up deaf, and she really gave a good conversation about [the time] when there was one person who advocated for her and who saw her for who she was. What an impact they had on her.
Dr. Kelsey Kerkhove is a pediatric audiologist. You definitely want to come to our talk. It was kind of funny. It was almost like looking in a mirror. Because everything she was saying I was like, ‘oh, that’s what I believe.’ And then I would say something and she said ‘that’s what I believe’. What really matters is that your child is at the center of the family is the focus and all the audiology things that we’re trying to do are in service of a good, and happy, and healthy life for the family, not just so that they can hear at a certain level, and have access to sounds at certain dB’s. That was a great talk with Kelsey Kerkhove.
You definitely know that I’m a big fan of Kimberly Sanzo with Language First. And so she also provided an amazing presentation all about language over speech, the difference between speech and language, and how to ensure that Deaf kids can acquire language. I think the piece that really stuck out to me from her talk, I shared this on Instagram as well, was the difference between exposure and access. And really defining all these terms that we hear a lot. You may hear them from our audiologists or speech pathologists, online and,books. Once you start defining what do all these terms mean, what does it mean to communicate, what does it mean to develop language? So definitely, definitely Kimberly’s talk is so important to help us understand and navigate all these terms. And really, as a parent of a Deaf or Hard of Hearing child, when you come into the world of audiology, when someone in your life has hearing loss, you end up getting very educated on a lot of things, and learning and getting so much information. So I really hope this summit will be a part of that journey for you: of gathering information, resources, and tools. And then using that to make the best decisions for your family.
I’ll keep going down the list of all the amazing speakers. Kris Daria is a mother to a young boy who is deaf, and uses cochlear implants, and has had a lot of different changes and turning points throughout her journey that we talked about and navigating all of that. Kris is also a part of the Connect and Advocate Group. And so she talks a bit about that as well in the conversation we had for the summit.
Lola Brito is a bilingual speech language pathologist. She talked about what the home program is. [Meaning] what does it mean when a speech language pathologist, or any other early intervention specialist, comes to your home? [As well as] discussing all different questions [such as] What will that look like and what is the point of it? How does it help? So that was a really powerful and important presentation. Definitely don’t miss that one in the summit.
Mallorie Evans is an audiologist who talks about the bias and what’s missing or lacking in the way that we communicate about hearing loss to families. And we have had Mallorie on the podcast before. [It is] one of the most popular podcast episodes in fact. So yeah, we’ve talked more about that: about the audiology and language access in early intervention and how important those first few years are. So thanks to Mallorie for participating in the summit.
Now on the parenting bit, I was so excited and lucky to get to work with Marcela Collier. Marcela is a parenting coach from High Impact club. And she and I talked about how we can boost your child’s confidence and how to make your relationship the focus. That was really great. And by the way: if any of you are on Tik Tok, also Instagram reels, Marcela makes really, really powerful videos that make you realize that kids are going through it. Kids are learning life. They’re learning how to exist in the world. And we can help them to regulate their emotions, and we can help them know that they are safe even when they feel so overwhelmed. That’s the biggest lesson, and I love her videos. So I was so glad to have a chance to collaborate with Marcela.
Marlene Medina Nero, the trilingual bimodal SLP on Instagram is just so fabulous. We had the best talk. I felt so close to her approach as well because thinking about how the home language might be different than the majority language. So a child who maybe speaks Spanish at home in the United States or all over the world, there are many different languages that children aren’t exposed to, [or] have access or limited access to and how it affects the brain to have different language exposures in such a positive light. Like sign languages and spoken languages. We had a great talk about what it’s like to be a multilingual SLP, busting some of those myths about bilingualism.
Do you remember Natalia Popham? She was on the podcast way, way, way at the beginning. And Natalia shares about her experience having a reverse slope hearing loss and what it’s like now as an adult, who grew up with different levels of being Hard of Hearing, whether or not she identified with that at different times, and recently, Natalia has gotten a cochlear implant. So she shares a little about that experience. She’s also an incredible artist. So I love always talking to her about her art.
Okay, three more to go because I told you this summit is jam packed. So I really hope you grab your ticket and you come and join us. So aside from letting you in and meeting my husband, I also have to tell you that my sister is in the summit. My dear oldest sister, her name is Rebbetzin Bat-Chen Grossman, and she’s a marriage coach. So we had to talk about how all of this experience may affect your marriage, or your partnerships, or other relationships in your life and your child’s life. [We spoke about] That you really have to also prioritize and make space for and understand that again, when someone in the family is going through something, it’s going to really have ripple effects on everything else. And she talks a lot about connection. Can you imagine, right? https://connectedforreal.com is her website and you know, we’re we’re very aligned about the goal of the relationship and the connection being always ,always a focus. So that was fun. You can see my sister. And some people say we look alike and some people say we sound exactly the same. So that’s fun. You can come and see if you agree. I’d love to hear your comments on that.
You remember Dr. Sarah Sparks audiology outside the box with just the most beautiful infographics and resources on her website. Dr. Sarah Sparks is doing so much beautiful work for educating in a way that’s so, so easy to understand and accessible. So we talked more about her own journey identifying as a Deaf audiologist and what it’s like to help people also by knowing that she’s, you know, she is the audiologist but she’s also been in their shoes and is in their shoes as well. So that was a really interesting conversation. I always love talking to Dr. Sparks. And we also do have a podcast episode that we had done previously.
And last but not least, this is just a random list by the way, not the order of the schedule or anything. But Valli Gideons, who is such an incredible author and mother of two. And she recently published her next book, which we talked more about. And what it’s like, you know, sharing the story of her experiences as the mom. Which of course is also sharing her children’s experience and we kind of talked a little on navigating telling a story when part of your story is part of other people’s story. I always love talking to Valli as well.
So I have had all these amazing conversations, over the last month and a half, with all the participants here – the speakers. And now I cannot wait to present it to you. And I have to say that almost all of the presenting speakers also offer some kind of offer for you, download, or advice that you can also take with you, as well as some prizes that we’re going to be having. So please head on over to All About Audiology Summit to get your free ticket and share with any and everyone in your world. I cannot wait to see you. We’re gonna have our kickoff call on September 19. And I will see you then.
Take care and thank you for being a listener of the All About Audiology podcast. Thank you for being in this world with me and creating the kind of conversations, and community, and connections that we really want to be seeing with each other. And also I will say that the Connect and Advocate Group is continuing into the new year starting at the end of October. So if anyone is interested in learning more about that, we’ll definitely be talking about it, sending emails about it. So if you’re not on the email list, go ahead and sign up for the summit and that will add you to the list – so you’ll get all the updates on that. And of course, I love talking to you guys. So if you’re on Instagram, send me a DM anytime, on Facebook as well, and I happen to be on Tik Tok these days but that’s a whole other world. So it’s great, great, great being in community with you. Thank you so much. I’ll talk to you soon. This is Dr. Lilach Saperstein, and this is the All About Audiology podcast. Bye!
