Follow your Clinical Intuitive Gut Until Proven Otherwise
Marion Downs, as most of us know is an extraordinary leader in our field, perhaps even the Founder of Pediatric Audiology as we know it.
I have come to know Marion and Love her spirit, however before I really knew her personally she inspired me in many ways through presentations I attended, videos I saw in grad school, and her publications.
One thing I observed time and time again, is how Marion would propose a protocol for testing or amplifying children that she had learned through her experience or had been led to by her intuition. "No" she often calmly explained, the research wasn't necessarily there, but she went for it and it often made a difference. Years later, researchers typically proved what Marion had been espousing.
Check out the Research Pages at: The Marion Downs National Center for Infant Hearing
By the way, to get a copy of Marion's Book,
Shut Up and Live! (You Know How)
Shut Up and Live! (You Know How)
send a $20 dontation to:
Marion Downs Hearing Center
Attn: Sandra Gabbard
1792 Quentin Street, Unit 2
Aurora, CO 80045
"Do the experiment!"
Dr. Charles I. Berlin ("Chuck") would often try to show me something or ex
plain a clinical or experimental standard that might or might not be easy to comprehend. If teaching this concept with his hands didn't do the trick (Have you seen Chuck's demo of hair-cell function or how low and high frequencies relate to mass and stiffness?), then Chuck would espouse "Do the experiment!"
Hey, remember trying to learn masking? One simple example of this was Chuck suggesting to experiment with how much narrow-band masking it really took to mask a warble tone in my own ear. Then Chuck would walk away while I 'did the experiment'.
And when we needed a velcro head-band for attaching the bone conductor to young children, of course I had to know how tight to put on the headband to match thresholds with the standard, metal, spring-loaded, bone conduction head-band. We used a few willing adults to determine that.
plain a clinical or experimental standard that might or might not be easy to comprehend. If teaching this concept with his hands didn't do the trick (Have you seen Chuck's demo of hair-cell function or how low and high frequencies relate to mass and stiffness?), then Chuck would espouse "Do the experiment!"Hey, remember trying to learn masking? One simple example of this was Chuck suggesting to experiment with how much narrow-band masking it really took to mask a warble tone in my own ear. Then Chuck would walk away while I 'did the experiment'.
So, even years later, when insert earphones started to become the standard for testing (sure hope you use them E-A-R Tones), there were graphs published by Etymotic about the minimum an
d maximum inter-aural attenuation they provided for each frequency, i.e., when to mask - much less often it turns out, of course. Did I check it out and do the experiment with a patient with a dead ear on one side and normal hearing on other? Ya, you betchya!
d maximum inter-aural attenuation they provided for each frequency, i.e., when to mask - much less often it turns out, of course. Did I check it out and do the experiment with a patient with a dead ear on one side and normal hearing on other? Ya, you betchya! And when we needed a velcro head-band for attaching the bone conductor to young children, of course I had to know how tight to put on the headband to match thresholds with the standard, metal, spring-loaded, bone conduction head-band. We used a few willing adults to determine that.
Taken together, Marion's teaching by example of
going with your clinical intuition
and Chuck's teaching of doing the experiment, are great models for learning and improving the way we do pediatric audiology every day.
One more thing, after you've tried something that works and/or done the experiment, please share it here for all of us to learn by. Thanks!!
going with your clinical intuition
and Chuck's teaching of doing the experiment, are great models for learning and improving the way we do pediatric audiology every day.
One more thing, after you've tried something that works and/or done the experiment, please share it here for all of us to learn by. Thanks!!
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