More Winters and Davis Preschoolers tested

This week additional preschoolers, in both the Davis and the Winters area, were screened for possible hearing loss. The efforts of Hear! Here! to reach more children this year has resulted in an overall increase in children being tested. Mel Russell, one of the coordinators says that so far around 400 preschoolers have been screened with three more schools to be tested. She says that the screening have gone very well so far with no major hitches.

Scheduling this year was harder because of the increase in the number of schools and because many of the schools requested the same day and/or time frame for the screenings; but with the help and flexibility of the Center for Hearing Health technicians and the willingness on the part of schools to accommodate some changes it has all worked out.

In fact, in someways this has been a very "bucolic" year.

From brand new father bunny rabbits looking to check out their just born offspring!

To flowers and vegetables decorating the testing site!

It is has not been all work!


Next Thursday will see end of the screenings for this year.

The success of the screenings owe a great deal to the community funding we received and the encouragement this gave to the small group of volunteers that run the program.
First 5 Yolo, The Woodland Sunrise Rotary Foundation and the Davis Soroptimists; all have made the screenings possible.

Knights Landing Preschoolers tested for first time

Last Thursday, May 3rd, the Center for Hearing Health's [CHH] mobile van arrived in the town of Knights Landing for the very first time. Although Hear! Here! did not receive any designated funding for Knights Landing the co-coordinators of the Preschool Screening program, Mel Russell and Donna Seaver, both agreed that this was the year to start including this rural town in the testing. They felt it was important that the health needs of the more isolated communities of the county should be met whenever possible. The Advisory Board of Hear! Here! agreed with them and as a result 21 Knights Landing preschoolers aged 4 and 5, had their hearing screened for signs of any hearing impairment.

Meanwhile, all the scheduled screenings for Woodland preschools finished on Friday, May 4th. The number of schools tested increased to 5 preschools this year, located throughout the city. Each preschool that joins in Hear! Here!'s screening project have to designate a teacher or teacher's aide to be responsible for gathering the children to be tested and making sure that they make it into the van and then back to their classroom. The testing takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes per group, depending on the number and age of the children in the van. Here two of the designated teachers/aides from the Woodland College Child Development Center wait outside the van. Hear! Here!'s volunteers help in ensuring the safety of the children as they enter and leave the van...as well as providing the "GOOOOD JOBS" and "HIGH FIVES" necessary to make the day FUN!

62 Winters children screened for Hearing Loss Today

The mobile van of the Center for Hearing Loss visited the town of Winters today. Two schools were included in the screenings and a total of 62 children were tested. For the first time I sat in the van during some of the testing and it was very interesting to see how Norma and Lucia, the two technicians, worked with the preschoolers.
The children were screened in groups of 5. As they took their places in the van they gave their name to Norma. Lucia then showed each child where to sit and explained that they were going to be putting on the ear phones and having a hearing test. She then gave them the directions "When you hear a sound you need to put your hand up right away. Then put it down when the sound goes away." Before doing the actual screening she had the children try it out first without headphones and then a couple of times with the headphones on. Some of the children treated this part as a race trying desperately to be the first one to have their hands up! This in part explained why, when the children do the actual screenings, they have to have their eyes closed. The other reason is to prevent a child from just copying the person next to them, which is very natural behaviour in 4 and 5 year olds. It was quite funny to see 5 children sitting there with their eyes closed...some had them squeezed oh oh so very tight and others barely had their eyelids touching down! Lucia was able to make sure though that eyes were shut when needed.
With Norma helping they then took the children through the sounds, testing each ear for 3 different frequencies. If a child was having problems following the directions Norma would help by gently prompting them with the instructions again with such patience. If a child seemed to be having problems hearing then Lucia repeated the sounds and also added another frequency to the mix, making sure they had every opportunity to respond.
As it happened one of the schools also had a number of 3 year olds in the class whom we also tested. Because they are younger and cannot focus for as long as 4 and 5 year olds, Norma had only 3 children come into the van at a time. Lucia adapted the test by screening each child one at a time as trying to listen and put their hands up at the same time is just a little too complex for 3 year olds.
The atmosphere was relaxed and some of the children were shouting "That was fun!" as they left the van...showing off their stickers as they went!

Thanks to First 5 Yolo for provide the funding we used to test these preschools in Winters.

Hearing Screenings for Preschoolers in Woodland Today

Hear! Here!'s hearing screenings for preschoolers continued today as the Center for Hearing Health's mobile van visited 3 schools in Esparto and 2 in Woodland. The Woodland Sunrise Rotary Foundation grant will cover the costs of testing in Woodland, while the Esparto schools will be funded by the grant Hear! Here! received from First 5 Yolo.

The technicians that perform the screenings, Norma [to the left] and Lucia [below] have been performing these tests for a number of years and they are considered by CHH to be the experts in screening children.

Thanks to the relaxed atmosphere that Norma and Lucia provide most of the children really enjoy being tested and best of all they all get stickers for a job well done!