How Audiologists Promote Better Hearing & Speech Month this May

For over 75 years, the month of May has been designated as Better Hearing & Speech Month, a time to increase public awareness on hearing, speech, language and voice disorders. Given that the month of May is right around the corner, here are some ways that your audiology colleagues and AuD Students promote Better Hearing & Speech month followed by some great resources for you to download and either use in your clinic or share with the public:

• Participate and/or organize local Walk4Hearing fund-raiser
• The Center for Hearing and Speech in Houston, TX has some of their previous patients present at a local elementary school to inform other children about hearing loss
• The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio has the hospital mascot (Wally Bear) walk around with the audiology staff on patient floors wearing ear phones and playing music to educate kids about hearing protection
• An audiologist from Hawaii makes arrangements to have information on hearing loss inserted in her church bulletin
• University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) participates in hearing screenings at the UNO Child Care Center.
• The Communication Disorders & Sciences Alumni Association of California State University Northridge presents information to students at a local high school to encourage careers in Audiology
• One of our Oaktree Products customers always orders several boxes of EAR Classic Foam Earplugs and randomly passes out samples to people with some information on preventing noise-induced hearing loss during the month of May
• Another handful of Oaktree Products order up Chocolate Ears as a treat to patients and staff

How have you promoted Better Hearing & Speech Month in the past and/or how do you plan on promoting it this year? Share your experiences and plans by leaving a comment at the end of this blog post. In contrast, if you always wanted to do something but didn’t know how, here are some suggestions. For starters, read How to Generate Local Media Coverage offered by the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA).  From there, download a few free press releases to start promoting Better Hearing & Speech month including:

• Customizable Hearing Loss press release from the American Academy of Audiology (AAA)
• Customizable Noise-Induced Hearing Loss press release from AAA
• What You Can Do About Hearing Loss press release from ASHA
• Parents: Do You Understand the Effects of Hearing Loss on Your Child’s Development? press release from ASHA
• Other related press releases from ASHA

Promotional items are also available to download from the AAA websites including:

• Posters & Promotional Tools
• Advertising Tools

Numerous Fact Sheets are offered in PDF format on the AAA website that you can make available in your patient waiting room or to referring physicians including:

• What is an Audiologist?
• Assistive Listening Devices
• Hearing Health Quick Test
• Hearing Loss
• Hearing Loss in Children
• Hearing Loss and Infant Hearing Screening
• Age-Related Hearing Loss
• Looping
• Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
• Noise in the Work Place
• Telecoil

Have kids at home? Have friends with kids?  Better yet, have kids who go to school with a lot of other kids? Offer teachers some fun activities for kids to do in school during the month of May that can be downloaded at no charge such as:

• Customizable activities Just for Kids from the AAA website including crossword puzzles, connect-the-dots, word find, and coloring sheets
• Fun For Kids activities from the ASHA website

Lots of ideas, lots of resources! Share your ideas and experiences on how you plan on promoting Better Hearing throughout the month of May! Have fun and good luck!