Award of ARC Linkage Project - Beyond Speech: Towards better communication for children with hearing loss

Congratulations to Distinguished Professor Katherine Demuth and Associate Professor Mridula Sharma on being awarded an ARC Linkage Project Grant entitled Beyond Speech: Towards better communication for children with hearing loss for $472,635 for the period 2019-2021. The project aims to understand the locus of the communicative challenges children with hearing loss face in their daily interactions. Despite the benefits of early newborn hearing screening and early intervention programs for children with hearing loss, most still experience academic and social challenges at school. This is partly due to ongoing listening effort, leading to communicative breakdown. The project outcomes will identify which levels of language are most compromised and will inform future interventions to reduce children’s listening effort. This will be undertaken by bringing together researchers in basic science with the following partner organisations: Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (Professor Gregory Leigh, Ms Inge Kaltenbrunn), The Shepherd Centre (Ms Aleisha Davis), Australian Hearing Services (Ms Alison King), Cochlear (Dr Mary-Beth Brinson), and Parents of Deaf Children Incorporated (Ms Fleur Henderson). “I’m  thrilled that this Linkage Grant gives us the opportunity work with our various Hearing Partners—hearing service providers, parents and industry—towards conducting research that will hopefully lead to better communication outcomes for children with hearing  loss", Distinguished Professor Demuth said following the ARC announcement.