Krista Almanzan for 90.3 Kazu reports on Baby Talk, the joint program by Stanford School of Medicine and the Weingarten Children’s Center to bring tele-therapy to children in rural and impoverished areas with hearing aids and cochlear implants.
“Many of the children we worked with had access to this technology, but then returned home to rural and impoverished communities without the support structure to help them be successful. Language barriers, distance and lack of adequately trained professionals resulted in less than desired outcomes,” says Jan Larky of the Stanford Ear Institute and BabyTalk’s Audiologist.
The program, which started three years ago, currently serves nearly 40 families, including twelve in the Monterey Bay Area. While there are other tele-therapy programs out there, BabyTalk’s Meg Farquhar says this program is unique for a couple of reasons.
“Number one, the numbers — how many people we are working with and number two, the diversity, and in particular this lower socioeconomic bracket,” says Meg Farquar, Director of Family Services with Stanford Department of Otolaryngology.
Leave A Comment