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Today’s guest is Dr. Sarah Sparks, who is the founder of Audiology Outside the Box, a new audiology telepractice. She provides clinical services to clients in DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts along with educational resources on communication and audiology-related topics. Dr. Sparks’ goal includes wanting to “provide a space where people can get support for their unique communication needs with an audiologist who communicates in both ASL and spoken/written English.” At the end of the day, she believes that Deaf culture and audiology have a place where they exist together and it is her mission to bring about this change.
This week on the All About Audiology podcast:
* 1:45: How Dr. Sparks Got Into Audiology
Before losing her hearing, she was fluent in spoken English. This is a different experience than someone who is born deaf. She started to study audiology around the time she started losing her hearing.
* 3:25 What makes a “successful” cochlear implant hearing patient?
Dr. Sparks became a cochlear implant recipient while studying for her doctorate of audiology between the first and second year of her AUD program. Talk about a truly hands-on and practical experience!
* 5:30 Dr. Sparks’ early access and knowledge about The Deaf Community
As an elementary school student, she befriended a young friend in elementary school who was deaf. She feels privileged to have been exposed to such a community at an early age.
* 9:05: Dr. Sparks’ training at Gallaudet University
During her educational experience, Dr. Sparks learned that many assumptions she initially held about audiology were not necessarily correct. For example, audiologists in The U.S. do not only work with kids; they actually work with adults too.
* 13:00: What services do audiologists offer? Initially, she was a teacher, and from this previous experience, she believes that the educational aspect of audiology is not addressed enough. She thinks that audiologists do not explain clients’ diagnoses and experiences thoroughly enough to them. Though, audiologists are not always paid to tap into the educational aspects of their patients’ conditions, since time is limited during appointments.
* 16:00 What stands out about Dr. Sparks’ “Audiology Outside the box”
She tries to take more time during appointments. Since appointments are not always provided in various modalities, she tries to fill in for what’s missing by providing services in different modalities (i.e English, ASL SimCom or Cued-speech).
* 19:30: Telehealth options along with her education vs. counseling services
Dr. Sparks’ education and upcoming webinar components are accessible to the general public (i.e. through social media platforms) since they focus on general info about audiology. While, her personalized counseling services are offered to individuals clients, on a case by case basis, in locations where she is licensed (DC, VA, MD, MA).
* 23:15 The Medical-Audiological Model
Sign language isn’t “just an option if a cochlear implant does not work out.” ASL is its own language and not just a modality! Dr. Sparks suggests that a child should be fluent in at least one language in order to have an option to communicate and she truly believes that there is benefit of knowing sign language ev...
