News and Events

20-21 August online event: Perspectives on language in children with hearing loss

Find out more and register for this free online workshop.

How do children with hearing loss develop spoken language? As advancements in early identification, devices, fitting and intervention progress, children with hearing loss have better possibilities for functional language use than ever before. Yet challenges remain. This workshop brings together researchers, clinicians, health practitioners and industry representatives from diverse fields to discuss the many perspectives on how children with hearing loss come to be able to acquire and process spoken language. Many of the keynote speakers are members of the Australian Hearing Hub, an initiative of Macquarie University that brings together some of the country's leading hearing and healthcare orgnaisations and researchers, to collaborate across critical issues in hearing health.

Language games launched

Due to the social distancing measures aimed to slow the spread of COVID-19, we've missed having children and their families coming in to the lab for studies! We have also been aware that this has not been an easy time for many families with parents having to help their children adjust to new circumstances, including remote schooling.

So, Lab Deputy Director decided it would be a great time for the lab to put together some fun language science games for our website. Since launching the games on 27 April, we have been providing new games with a different theme every Monday. We contined to do this until NSW students were back at school full time, plus a few extras! You cn find the games on our website (as well as links on Facebook Page page or Twitter Feed).

Read more about the games and the rationale behind them in Macquarie University's Lighouthouse news.

Lab members involved in the Inclusive Junior Science Academy

The Inclusive Junior Science Academy took place in January 2020 and was a great success! The budding scientists had a ball with various activities including making and racing hovercrafts, dissecting sheep's brains, creating chemical reaction rockets and fake blood (which was trialled on volunteers from the lab: Chi Lo and Isabel O'Keeffe!)

What the students appreciated most was being able to spend time with other deaf and hard of hearing children. As one participant wrote:

Sharing the experience with other DHH kids made it easier for me to speak up when I couldn’t hear, because if I couldn’t, they probably couldn’t either.

Another participant wrote to their parents:

Thank you for such a wonderful school holiday! I loved it when you signed me up for the science camp! My favourite part was when I got to meet other deaf people.

After the Science Camp, three of the children also participated in studies at the Child Language Lab, which was wonderful.

Stay tuned for more details about the next camp and you can read more about the January 2020 camp in the Lighthouse.