May 1, 2013 - The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), observes Better Hearing and Speech Month this May.
Sponsored by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) since 1927, this annual observance provides opportunities to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing. Communication disorders include, for example, hearing loss, tinnitus (a sensation of a ringing, roaring, or buzzing sound in the ears or head), and stuttering.
This year’s Better Hearing and Speech Month theme is: Helping People Communicate.
“Communication disorders decrease quality of life, across all ethnic and socioeconomic lines, and impose a significant social and economic burden upon individuals, their families, and the communities in which they live,” said NIDCD Director James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. “Millions of Americans experience a communication disorder at some point in their life, and they can be particularly challenging for young children and older adults.”
The NIDCD conducts and supports research in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language. Research supported by the NIDCD has led to many advances in treating communication disorders. For example, NIDCD’s support was instrumental in the development of the cochlear implant, a device that provides a sense of sound to people who are profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. Currently, NIDCD-supported researchers are studying children with autism who never learn to speak, in hopes of finding therapeutic interventions that could help them develop functional language skills and give them the ability to communicate with the world around them.
Better Hearing and Speech Month is a good opportunity to learn more about symptoms, diagnosis, treatments and resources available to those with communication disorders. The NIDCD has several updated publications to help you identify communication disorders that could affect hearing, speech, and language at different stages in life. These publications also include information about current research related to the disorders.
Visit the NIDCD website for more information on hearing, voice, speech, and language or contact the NIDCD Information Clearinghouse at (800) 241-1044 or (800) 241-1055 (TTY) or by email at nidcdinfo@nidcd.nih.gov.
Source: https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/news/releases/13/Pages/050113.aspx?nav=update
