Outreach efforts have aided in further educating the medical and larger San Antonio community of the importance of early hearing loss identification and intervention. Our early intervention videotape is distributed throughout the medical community. Sunshine Cottage educates medical professionals about the importance of early hearing loss identification and intervention. We coordinate workshops designed to reach early childhood intervention agencies which help to build bridges for collaborative efforts in the deaf and medical community.

Auditory brain centers do not start out with the ability to hear. Hearing develops only as the brain is stimulated by many sounds during infancy. Each time a sound stimulates the auditory brain centers, the brain develops thousands of new connections which are the synapses. The growing network of synapses enables the baby to make sense of sounds in our language.

Access to sound during infancy is critical for the auditory brain centers to fully develop. Research shows that infants six (6) months and younger who are identified with a hearing loss and are given hearing aids and placed in an early intervention program are able to produce language at a normal level on the developmental milestones. They can speak at the same level as their hearing peers.

Preventing Developmental Delays

Click here to watch Preventing Developmental Delays, Sunshine Cottage's new and informative video on hearing loss intervention.  This video is best viewed using Windows Media Player 9.