Firstly, as a Newborn Hearing Screener, I perform newborn hearing test on newborns within the first 24 to 48 hours of birth. The test procedure that is used is an Automated ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) that measures the brain nerve responds to sound. A click sound …show more content…
For the past two and half years, I have volunteered at Fairview Hospital: Adult Audiology Clinic and Lions Children’s Hearing and ENT Clinic. I met with audiologists that led me to the conclusion that the field of Audiology was the career for me. I furthered my insight into the Audiology field by shadowing numerous audiologist at the hospital. While observing the audiologist do day-to-day tasks, and seeing the impact it had on the patient and their family, I felt that this is where I belong. When shadowing Doctor Ward, an audiologist whose patient is a 2 ½ year old who came in for a 6-months cochlear implant check-in. While the audiologists tried to get the patient to respond, I realized that this is the setting I wanted to work in. I admired the patient centered approach Doctor Ward presented which attracted me towards a career in Audiology. The patient's cochlear implants was reprogrammed based on his hearing test results. The impact that audiologists can have on people’s lives immensely correlates with their way of living. It can help elders reconnect with their family and friends or give infants the ability to hear language, which is critical for speech and language development. These visits gave me extensive insight into the work of an audiologist with different focuses such as child diagnostic and adult rehabilitation. I observed a variety of tasks carried out …show more content…
The first research project I transcribed conversations of children from the ages of 8-13 that were already pre-recorded. For the assessment test, I analyzed their speech for mazes (filled pauses, repetitions, revisions, and abandoned utterances). In the other research project, I contributed to the data analysis by examining how auditory visual cues impact speech recognition assessments for that Audiologists use to assess hearing loss. Speech recognition assessments were presented in various formats (auditory only, visual only and auditory visual only) to a cochlear implanted individuals who then used a confidence rating of 1 thru 5. I realized that I had enjoyed doing research because I applied what I learned in the classroom to the real world. My research and experience in audiology opened my eyes to the possibility of becoming an audiologist in this growing field. The constant advancement in research and technology is something I am impressed by and hope I can contribute to those advancements in the future. This, in addition to observing audiologists at the hospital, has convinced me to pursue a clinical