Georgia Focus - AVC

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm JohnClark on the Georgia News Network. The
Auditory Verbal Center, located in Atlantaand Macon, is making remarkable strides and
empowering George's children with hearing loss tohear and speak. With May being the
National Speech Language Hearing Month, itis serving as a beacon of hope for
families facing the challenges of hearing impairment. ABC offers comprehensive programs designed to equip

(00:33):
children with the skills they need tothrive in a hearing world. Here today
to talk about this is Debbie Billing, executive director of the Auditory Verbal Center,
and her son Jonathan Billing, alsowith the Auditory Verbal Center. Well,
John, tell us about the OliverVerbal Center, and you have then
this month May is coming up,a special month of May. You have

(00:53):
a special history month, right,Yeah, that's right. Month. The
month of May is Better Hearing hisSpeech month when we get to kind of
let the people know that there arepeople with that are definitely hard of hearing.
And but before we go into whowe are and what we're doing,
John, first I want to thankyou for letting us be here to share
who we are in our story tohelp you understand who we are. I

(01:17):
want you to think about this.If you woke up tomorrow with absolutely no
sound and you can never hear again, what are some of your favorite sounds
that you would miss? Music?Music? Music? You had a favorite
genre? Oh, gosh, Ilike classic alternatives. Ah, that's a
good one, but I do.And blues. I look blues Okay,

(01:41):
So yeah, music, I wouldmiss it immensely. Okay, I love
music too. And if you couldn'thear that again, just imagine what your
life would look like. And we'recalled children. If you had a child
and they woke up and couldn't hearagain, what would that life look like?
Oh that'd be terrible anybody. Asa matter of fact, you would
be lost without right, Yeah,you would be so. The Auditory Verbal

(02:07):
Center is a non profit organization that'sbeen around for over forty five years.
We teach deaf and hard of hearingchildren how to hear and speak without the
use of lip reading or sign language. So again, when I asked you,
what's your favorite sound and you couldn'thear that again, what would your
life look like? The Auditory VerbalCenter teaches to children to hear and speak

(02:30):
by Actually, I'm gonna go aheadand let Debbie B. Gabbie tell us
about it. Thank you again forletting us be here. So this is
where miracles happen. We teach themto hear and speak without the use of
sign language or lip reading. It'san early intervention special education family education program.

(02:58):
It is not a school. Itis a center. A family would
come to us for one hour aweek do therapy with our therapists, and
the therapist is coaching the mom andempowering mom, dad, grandparents, whoever
is bringing the child to be theprimary role model for this child, whether
it's mild or profoundly deaf. Wewant them to be the primary role model,

(03:23):
the teacher of their child's development.So we act out during therapy sessions
what we want. Everything is throughplay. It's intentional play. We start
as young as two months old,once a child has access to sound,
be it hearing aids or a colcularimplant, and then just work with them.

(03:47):
They'll come for two to five years. When they graduate from our program,
their age appropriate expressively and receptively toa normal hearing child mainstream and a
regular kindergarten class. By the timethey're five years old. No special ad,
no ips, not an isolated classroomfor the deaf. They're raised out

(04:12):
there with every other child. It'samazing the work that can happen when given
a chance. Yeah, it isamazing. I noticed, John, that
you have a career input. Thatis correct. I was actually born deaf
in both years, okay, andwithout this organization, I never would have
been able to hear interneague. Ilove music just like you have. Classic

(04:36):
alternative is definitely one of those,and I also love country. But one
of my favorite sounds for me,as you think about some of your favorite
sounds out there, my favorite soundsis hearing my children laugh at my witty
dad jokes. I have three kids, and I can't imagine not being able
to hear their voices, or beingable to hear my mother tell me she

(04:58):
loved me, and all their crazinessthat we get to do in the office
together. Does it actually now thatyou were you were born without any hearing,
without any hearing. So one ofthe perks about a curricauline plant I
see when I take it off,and you can see it right now.
I'm taking it off when I'm tiredof listening to you, John, I
just turned you off. But onceI put on my curricular iron plant,

(05:20):
I get to hear it. Ohman, oh gosh, that is that's
amazing. It When kids we arenow implanting kids not auditory verbal signd it
anti doctor surgeons will implant them asyoung as nine months old, which is
amazing. Right, And once youget that cariculum plant, you're able to

(05:45):
hear all the sounds that a hearingaid user just can't hear, right,
like those high frequencies. Where didthe children come from? Or where did
the children and adults and all comefrom? That it come from the Atlanta
area that come all over Georgia,from all of Georgia, And that's a
great question. We are the onlycenter like this where we have an office

(06:06):
in Atlanta, one in making.And then we also offer teletherapy. Now,
back in twenty ten, I usedto watch my kids skype and thought,
you know, if they can dothat, we could probably do this
with therapy. And it worked.So when COVID hit one hundred percent of
our clients transitioned over to teletherapy,and it's great. Many of them are

(06:29):
still on teletherapy because it overcomes thebarrier of transportation, so we are able
to serve every deaf and heart ofhearing child throughout the state of Georgia.
It doesn't matter where you live,and if you don't have access to the
internet, we'll put it in yourhome. If you don't have access to
equipment like a computer, we're goingto send the family a tablet. We

(06:53):
also will send them learning to listenkit toys that they're going to use for
therapy every day at home, anda lot of the materials that we make
we ship them to the family.We want them to be successful and provide
everything that we can to them sothat they can continue being that role model

(07:15):
for their child at home. Didyou first of all start this and then
you have kids and then you foundout? How did that start? No?
I have to ask it. No, this place was around before.
Okay, I knew about it.But my daughter was eighteen months old,
not saying anything, no mommy,no daddy, no sound whatsoever. So

(07:39):
I was concerned and I went andhad her tested for hearing loss and that's
when I found out she was bornprofoundly deaf. Now I was pregnant with
Jonathan at the time and I dida lot of research. I chose the
auditory verbal approach because I wanted tobe able to learn to hear it and
speak with her, and that shewould be able to communicate with me.

(08:05):
We joined the program. A couplemonths into the program, I gave birth
to Jonathan, so they did newbornscreening with him. Because of Samantha.
We found out at birth that Jonathandidn't have hearing either. He was profoundly
dub so he had his first setof hear needs on it six weeks old
and got right into the program rightaway. We're very fortunate that here in

(08:30):
Georgia we now have newborn screening,so every baby born in the state of
Georgia is tested for hearing loss beforethey leave the hospital. So they're catching
these kids early, get them fittedwith hearing aids, hopefully by three months,
and into an intervention program. Andwhen that happens, they're out within

(08:52):
two three years like any other child, their dreams or whatever they want to
be because there is no limitation becauseof their hearing impairments. That's that's amazing
to me. That's amazing. Now, the programs that you have, you
have a list of programs, thetypes of programs like not you know English

(09:13):
is a second language for example,things like that, you have a lot
of things like that, what doyou have. We specialize in auditory verbal
therapy. That's all we do.But we do believe that families learn from
the language of the home. Okay, So for our Hispanic families, we
offer therapy in Spanish. We havethree bilingual therapists serving our Hispanic communities.

(09:43):
Then we do the teletherapy for thosethat can't make it to one of the
offices, and we also do oralrehab for adults. So a normal hearing
adult, something happens, you loseyour hearing, you get a calculium plant.
We're going to provide the rehab tolearn to hear again with that calculat

(10:05):
implant. Are your instructors diff No, they are highly specialized. They have
to have a master's in speech languagepathology and then it takes three more years
of training to get certified in whatwe do. It's very limited. There's

(10:28):
only about a thousand certified therapists inthe entire world. We've got eight of
them at our center. I amreally excited about a new hire that starts
in May. She just got marriedand is moving to Macon and will start
in my making office. She wasactually a graduate of our program really a

(10:50):
few years ago and really wanted togive back to other deafen hard of hearing
children. So she and got hermasters in speech language pathology and it's being
trained in auditory verbal therapy and shewill be one of our therapists starting in
June down to make it down andmake it so people know there's you know,

(11:11):
bilateral calculear implants. Oh man,so very exciting to have lady board
with us. My first I didn'tknow anything about cochlear implant until Rush Limbough
had one. Okay, he hadwon many years back, right, and
and you know radio that's what youdo. Rush remember hearing about Rush.

(11:31):
But the cochlear implant just really changedhis life, yes, you know?
And so yeah, Well, whenhearing aids can only amplify so much,
they can't get loud enough for youto hear the high frequencies that speech comes
from. And when you're profoundly deaflike Rush, when overnight he woke up

(11:52):
and then he was done, youdon't have any options unless you get that
calcular implant. And once you getthat implant, your whole world opens up
because you're able to hear all thesounds that are here. In age user
just can't hear. But you doneed to do some listening therapy to learn
to hear with it because the signalthe sound is different than it is with

(12:18):
the with the here. It aidsright. All of your students at school
have cochlear implants, so they haveif regular earplones, what they were going
to have? What they have.That's a great question, man, that's
a great question. And because we'rea family education center, and so their
families bring their child in from onehour once a week and then they take

(12:39):
that child home with the lesson plansand implement that lesson for one hour a
day every day at home, raisingthat child in their natural neighborhood environment and
their neighborhood schools. So because we'rea family education center, they just come
from one hour once a week andwe're coaching those parents how to work with
a child. And then every childhas a different degree of hearing, whether

(13:00):
it be mild, moderate, severeto profound. You would have hear in
age or a colcular implant, dependingon your degree of hearing loss, or
if you're a mild moderate hearing lostperson you have here in age, but
if you're severe to profound you wouldhave a cocular implant. And no matter
what you get, you still wantto do a little bit of auditory verbal
therapy to be able to learn tohear and speak, and be able to

(13:22):
hear and speak as Ballad I do. Yeah, yeah, very good.
Auditory verbal therapy is different than justspeech therapy. Yeah. We are about
listening and you learn to hear it. Put meaning to the sound that you
hear, and when you can hearit, then you can say it.
What about do you the people whoyou were born obviously not hearing and you

(13:48):
started out like that, so thenyou're now used to it. What about
those who are born hearing and theylose their hearing? You work with them
too. Those who've boss her wedo. We have you know, and
hearing loss just because you pass thator doesn't mean you're home free. Hearing
loss can show up at any time, from antibiotics to syndromes to meningitis.

(14:15):
Antibiotics is a big one, andespecially as you get older. So you
would get calculium plant and we offerthe oral We have four calculium plants and
we serve anywhere from We'll get childrenthat wake up with the hearing loss at
three years old, did the meningitis, Or we have a sixty year old
who woke up with no hearing andto get a cocolinarim plant. We'll work

(14:37):
with all ages getting that cookinarim plant, learning to hear and speak with them.
And so you work with them whothey've heard for many years and all
of a sudden, well you can'thear. Then you start to work with
them. Is it more difficult towork with those to teach them than to
do this with you? That's agreat ques. Sometimes when you're working with

(15:00):
people that are setting their ways,that gives me a little a little bit
of a challenge. But we oftenfind that being able to hear the sounds
that they love again is what drivesthem to be able to work towards learning
to hear again. And we havelike this one lady. I'll never forget
it. She was crying because shemissed being able to hear the opera.

(15:20):
And I haven't met anybody that lovesthe opera as this lady. And we
were sitting there and when she gota curricular plan on at first sold the
struggle learning to hear with it,but after about a month really learning to
hear, she wrote down crying becauseshe finally heard the opera again, and
that was her life's passion is goingto the opera, hearing the music without

(15:43):
it, and she felt like herlife meant nothing, But once she could
hear it again, they gave herher excitement back. It's got us in
classical tars. Yeah, it wouldbe like that, yeah, But our
primary focus is the children. Thechildren birth to about four or five five
years of age, we can't takeand do what we do, for example,

(16:04):
with the a sixteen year old whoselive what we call deaf culture,
where sign language is their only modeof communication and if they've never stimulated the
auditory cortex of the brain, it'sreally a little too late. So we
really hone in on our children thebirth to about five years of age,

(16:26):
and then we have the adult program, which is very small because it's primarily
the children. And here in Georgiathere's on average two hundred and fifty babies
born deaf per year in Georgia alone, and then another three hundred on top
of that that get diagnosed with hearingloss later with then birth to five years

(16:47):
old, but no good Yeah,due to many different reasons, whether they
it was misdiagnosis in the hospital,whether it was the medications, or whether
it was meningitis. Sean average atabout five hundred babies per year that come
in with the heroing loss. Howmany do you work with usually? Currently
we have one hundred and thirty fivefamilies on our caseload right now. Last

(17:12):
year we serviced one hundred and eightyseven. They graduate throughout the year because
it's not a school, it's afamily education program, right, so we
have graduation throughout the year and bringingin new families all the time. And
one of the exciting things that mymom loves to share, if we have

(17:34):
no wait list, we will neverput a child on the right list,
And a minute a child gets diagnosedwith the hearing loss, we get them
in and we start therapy asuing aspossible, because it's critical if you don't
stimulate the auditory auditory quirk text ofthe brain by the time they're three to
four years old, it developed atrophyand die off. So you can't take

(17:56):
an eight year old that's never heardanything and teach them to hear in speak
as well as our kid so wetry to get them in as soon as
possible. Hence why we have nowait list and we'll never turn a child
away because of money. That's whatI was going to ask. How do
you pay for it? Yeah,we are nonprofits, so we write grants
and do fundraisers and really depend onindividual donations. Sixty five percent of our

(18:21):
clients are a Medicaid. We dotake all insurance and all Medicaid and cmos
and families without insurance will work withthem. Like I said, I will
never turn a child away for moneybecause we have children all over the state
of Georgia. We love working withdifferent groups, so we'll work with civic

(18:42):
organizations like Kawanish Rotary Lione Club.We'll do what we can to raise money
in that community for the families thatcome from theirs. So like when we
mentioned if they have no internet whereif they don't have a tablet to be
able to do teletherapy, the localclub loves to do projects that help raise
the money to provide the internet forthe home. So we do work well

(19:06):
with people around the state and dependon depend on their help and them spreading
the word that deaf kids can learnto hear and speak. But we also
host our annual galas, which area lot of fun, and we have
our annual golf tournaments that we'd liketo get out and get to know our
donors and build relationships with people thatcare about hearing laws and their favorite sounds.

(19:27):
Do you have a gala coming up? Is it passed already? Is
it coming up now? Coming upsoon? This year? It'll be we're
not doing it this year. We'llbe doing it April twenty six. We
always did it in the fall,but we've decided to switch and try to
do it in the spring. Sowe took this year off and we'll be

(19:47):
doing it April twenty six next year. What about a golf tournament? And
we just had our golf Yes,we did. It was two weeks ago
now, and it was a greatsuccess. We had a lot of people
come out. We actually had alot of new people who had no idea
that children born deaf had the optionto learn to hear and speak, and
so it was a great success tobe able to spread the awareness and raise

(20:08):
money to help these children. Now, you mentioned the sign language earlier.
You don't teach that at all.We do not. We do not.
Now. Sign language is a beautifullanguage, and when they graduate from our
program, they're more than well welcometo learn sign language. Would be like
you and I learned in Spanish orany other language. But when you're in

(20:30):
the program, focus on one path, one mode of communication, and really
teach the child to hear and speakand put meaning to the sound that they
are hearing. So we don't dosign language in our center, right,
right? And to what to whatage do you do? You work with

(20:53):
them these until they are age appropriateexpressively or and receptive, so they could
be seven years old when they graduate. The majority of our children graduate when
they're four or five years old becausewe got them early. Okay, every
child has various degrees of hearing lawsand if they have other disabilities. About

(21:21):
sixty percent of our kids have multipledisabilities. So it's hard to it's not
a hard faest. Okay, you'refive, you graduate kind of thing.
It's based on intense testing that wedo every six months and close that gap
between their hearing age and their chronologicalage. And like I said, once

(21:44):
they are age appropriate to a normalhearing peer, they're on their own.
Okay, what about those that areolder like you mentioned the lady and they
who learned her couldn't hear the opera? What about her? Now? Lord?
The people you do too? Yeah, so great question. Because we're
a family education center and not aschool, like she said, we don't

(22:07):
have to follow any kind of curriculum, okay, which every person, every
child, every adult is in theirown stages of their own hearing lost journey,
and we're able to tailor our plansbased on that individual's preference, on
where they are in their stage oflife, where they are with toys at
home, where they are with thefamily's work environment. We're able to tailor

(22:30):
the lesson plans to that individual andtheir lifestyle. So with that, the
lady that came in, any kindof therapy that goes through is going to
be based on where she is atthat time she's working with a therapist.
So there's no curriculum even for theadults that come in. Okay, where
can they get in touch with you? Let people know they can get a

(22:56):
They can find our website at www. Dot A b C. Here's dot
org. They can also give usa call. Our phone number is four
O four six three three eight nineone one and you can also follow us
on social media. All of oursocial media tags are A B edgend victor
C as in Charlie, Here's hE A R S. You can find

(23:21):
us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Okay, okay, So so regardless,
if call, call and find outthe most important thing is to call.
Yeah, we will schedule an intake. We'll talk with you, We'll
find out what are your expectations foryour child? What are We'll tell you

(23:41):
what our expectations are. If youwant to join the program, we'll get
you in. You can start asearly as the very next week. Like
I said, we've got an officein Macon to cover Middle and South Georgia.
We have our office in Atlanta andthen teletherapy, so there's no reason
why somebody can't get access to ourservices. Absolutely should call and you also

(24:04):
also you said also you do tours? Who yes, we do. We
love doing like a lunch and learncoffin Donuts once a month you come in.
You let us know that you wantto do a tour, will set
it up and you get to seethe kids in action, what therapy looks
like, and how the whole organization'srunning. And you get to meet the
wonderful executive director, Debbie Burling.She'll be the one that gives you the

(24:26):
special tour as well. Good.I think the most important thing that I
want everybody to know is that childrenborn deaf or hard of hearing have options.
There's no reason for them to livein a silent world. Just call
find out what your options are.Don't be limited. If you call us,

(24:51):
we will get you in and gofrom there. Thank you both for
coming in today. It's a pleasuremeeting. You had fun meeting you.
Oh, it's a pleasure meeting.Yes. Thank you so much for listening
to us and helping share the messageacross the state of Georgia. Absolutely,
thank you both so much. Thankyou. That's Debbie Brilling and Jonathan Brilling

(25:14):
from the Auditory Verbal Center. Ifyou want to find out more information about
them, you can visit avchres dotorg. Avchres dot org. For questions
and comments about today's program, youcan email me John Clark at Georgianewsnetwork dot
com. Thanks for listening. I'lltalk to you next week right here on
your local radio station on Georgia Focus