2026 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 15-17, 2026 • Jacksonville, FL
3/16/2026 | 10:05 AM - 10:35 AM | Moving Beyond the Thresholds: Expanding Understanding of Hearing Levels for Families and Professionals | City Terrace 7
Moving Beyond the Thresholds: Expanding Understanding of Hearing Levels for Families and Professionals
Audiograms and auditory brainstem response (ABR) evaluation reports are the foundation of understanding the need for and accessing services in early intervention and deaf education for children who are deaf/hard of hearing. Despite being a crucial component of eligibility and something families and professionals are exposed to on a regular basis, these reports provide only a surface understanding of a child’s hearing difference and rarely reflect the functional impact. This presentation will highlight two of the tools used in Maine to support a deeper understanding of the functional impacts of hearing differences for both caregivers and professionals regularly interacting with children who are DHH. An interactive audiogram module with hearing difference simulation capabilities is accessible to all via a free website created by Maine’s EHDI program. This module can be independently accessed by families and can be used by professionals when counseling families about their child’s hearing differences. Additionally, a report called an Audibility Summary is created by the early intervention team’s educational audiologist to describe a child’s unaided and aided hearing and the impact of their functional hearing on their potential spoken language development, to support a family in pursuing communication opportunities that best align with their child’s abilities. These tools will be demonstrated with practical tips for creating similar processes in other states and programs.
- The participant will be able to explain two ways in which a traditional audiogram alone may be insufficient to support a family’s understanding of their child’s hearing levels.
- The participant will be able to describe how using audibility data can support a family’s understanding of their child’s auditory access and capacity to develop spoken language.
- The participant will be able to list two ways in which a similar process for counseling about the functional impacts of a child’s hearing levels can be implemented in their own program/state.
Presentation:
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Handouts:
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Transcripts:
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Presenters/Authors
Katherine Duncan
(Primary Presenter,Co-Presenter), Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, katherine.duncan@mecdhh.org;
Katherine Duncan obtained her doctorate of audiology (Au.D.) from The Ohio State University. She is currently in her thirteen year as an educational audiologist at the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Falmouth, Maine. She supports the organization's early intervention program as well as providing support to pre-K-12 programming in the southern part of the state. Katherine is the Audiology Consultant for the Maine Newborn Hearing Program. She is also the coordinator of the hearing assistive technology program for EI4ME, Maine's early intervention system.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
• Receives Salary for Employment from Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Nonfinancial -
• Has a Professional
(Consultant and team member for Maine EHDI Program)
relationship for Other volunteer activities.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Financial relationship with Employed by the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Nature: MECDHH Employment
Audiology Consultant for state's EHDI program; MECDHH receives financial compensation for services provided under Audiology Consultant role.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Amy Spencer
(Co-Presenter), Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, amy.spencer@mecdhh.org;
Amy is the early intervention and family services coordinator at MECDHH/GBSD. She is a certified SLP and Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. She serves on Maine’s EHDI Team as a member of the Earliest Interactions Maine/HRSA grant team under the Maine Newborn Hearing program. Additionally she is part of the Maine Interagency Coordinating Council that ensures collaboration between partners in the state serving children 0-3 and their families. As part of her Infant Toddler Family Leadership and Collaboration Certificate Program from Gallaudet, Amy began her work on the Exploring Language and Communication Opportunities process and it has continued to evolve throughout the last ten years. Amy lives in southern Maine exploring both the ocean and mountains regularly with her husband and two young daughters.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Financial relationship with MECDHH/GBSD.
Nature: Employee.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.