Marion Downs Research Center Research (MDRC)

The new Marion Downs Center Research website was established to disseminate information from research studies conducted by or in collaboration with Dr. Christine Yoshinaga-Itano.

Dr. Yoshinaga-Itano is a Research Professor of the Institute of Cognitive Science and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Her research laboratory is in the Center for Innovation and Creativity (CINC) at 777 Exposition Drive in Boulder, Colorado.  She is a visiting professor of the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.  She is also an adjunct professor of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Colorado Denver-Medical Campus.  She serves on the advisory boards of the Marion Downs Center, Hands & Voices, the LENA Foundation, the IDA Institute, FCEI (Family Centered Early Intervention:  Deaf/Hard of Hearing.

She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, Maternal & Child Health, the Office of Special Education, and the Office of Education since the early 1980s. Dr. Yoshinaga-Itano has assisted education and public health agencies in the transformation of their systems throughout the United States and its territories.

In addition, she has served as a consultant for many countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, South Pacific Islands including Australia/New Zealand, North America (including Canada and Mexico), South America, Russia, and the Middle East, who have developed early hearing detection and intervention programs. She is a Fellow of the National Academies of Practice.  She was the recipient of the 2016 Volta Award from the AG Bell Association, the 2015 Educational Audiology Association Fred Berg Lifetime Achievement Award, Colorado Academy of Audiology 2015 Lifetime Achievement, the Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology  in 2013, AAA Research Achievement Award in 2001, the 2010 Robert Ruben Award for Research from the Society for Ear Nose and Throat Advances for Children, the 2014 Antonio Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence, and the 2010 Council for Exceptional Children, Division of Communicative Disabilities and Deafness Award.  Her work is interdisciplinary and intersects with speech/language pathology, education of the deaf, early childhood education, pediatrics, otolaryngology, and psychology.

The website contains information for researchers, practicing audiologists, teachers of the deaf, speech/language pathologists and early intervention providers providing services to families and children who are deaf or hard of hearing.  Research information on the auditory skills, speech, language, cognitive, and social-emotional development of infants and children who are deaf or hard of hearing will be provided on this website.

Some contents of this website were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RE5020-01-00).  NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Other content were developed under a contract from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and grants from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) through the Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD) and the Disabilities Research and Dissemination Center (DRDC), and grants from the Office of Education (OE).  The contents of this website do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, HHS, NIH, CDC, AUCD, DRDC or OE, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Research Outcomes are presented under a variety of research projects.

EHDI Outcomes:  Development outcomes of Colorado children who are deaf or hard of hearing

Colorado has collected developmental outcomes of the state population of children identified as deaf or hard of hearing between birth and 3 years of age since the mid 1980s.  Over 1200 children have been assessed during this time with bilateral permanent hearing loss.

Approximately 10-15% have significant cognitive disability.

Approximately 40% of the children have an additional disability (this includes those with cognitive disability)

Approximately 10-15% speak a language other than English in the home (predominantly Spanish).  The database contains approximately 300 different children following from birth through 3 years of age in Spanish-speaking homes.

About 150 of these children with no additional disabilities were followed longitudinally from birth through 7 years of age.

Over 100 of these children have cochlear implants.

As of August 2017, there are approximately 100 children with unilateral hearing loss in the database.

NECAP:  National Early Childhood Assessment Project:  Deaf/Hard of Hearing

The NECAP project has collected over 3000 assessments of children who are deaf or hard of hearing, birth through 3 years of age, across the United States.  The database contains developmental data from approximately 1500 different children.

Participating states include:  Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

About 2000 assessments are from children with bilateral permanent hearing loss.

About 500 assessments are from children with unilateral hearing loss.

About 2000 assessments are from children in English speaking families.

About 250 assessments are from children in Spanish-speaking homes.

LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities):  Pediatric Audiology Leadership Training

Colorado has participated in LEND training of pediatric audiologists since 2008.  During that time a students have completed projects and presented at professional conferences.  A significant number of them have co-published with LEND faculty.  The Colorado LEND project has a special focus on children who are deaf or hard of hearing and autism spectrum disorder.

The website contains information about publications and presentations of students.

RERC:  Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center:  Validating hearing aid fitting in infants and young children who are deaf or hard of hearing

This project is developing new techniques, procedures, and technology to validate hearing aid fitting in newborns diagnosed as deaf or hard of hearing.  The project is working in four areas:

Cortical auditory evoked potentials:  Mismatched Response (MMR) and Acoustic Change Complex (ACC)

Visual reinforcement infant speech discrimination:  Behavioral technique for assessing speech discrimination in infants 6 months to toddlers 18 months of age.

LENA (Language Environmental Assessment):  Assessing the characteristics of the language environment in which young children who are deaf or hard of hearing are accessing spoken language when using their hearing aids.

Parent Questionnaires of Auditory Skill Development:  Auditory skill development as measured by parent questionnaire responses for children birth through 3 years of age.

LittlEars

Auditory Skills Checklist:  Cincinnati