What is infant-direct speech (IDS)? It’s a method of language development that uses simpler words, repetition, a higher range of pitch and slower rate of speaking to help a child learn to speak.

Every summer, AG Bell welcomes four interns to work alongside its staff to experience how a nonprofit works, to learn about the AG Bell community, and to provide support for its functions and events.

Nearly 900 people from 40 countries representing all six inhabited continents participated in the AG Bell Global Virtual Listening and Spoken Language Symposium, July 9-10. Attendees came together in a virtual learning environment to hear from leaders in the field of listening and spoken language through a variety of online learning formats.

On April 23, 2020, professionals and members of the community who are deaf and hard of hearing came together online for an enlightening panel discussion about how COVID-19 has affected those living with hearing loss.

Recent graduates who are deaf and hard of hearing have faced unique challenges as members of the Class of 2020 during COVID-19. High school and college seniors have missed out on traditions they’ve looked forward to and earned, including graduation.

This will be a summer to remember. Family trips and summer camps have been cancelled due to COVID-19. When it’s hot outside and school’s not in session, how will the kids stay occupied?

India has lost a pioneer and advocate for listening and spoken language. Saraswathi Narayanaswamy, 78, passed away recently after a brief illness.

The 2020 AG Bell Global Virtual Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) Symposium will be a place to learn, network and connect with colleagues all over the world—without needing to travel.

Welcome to the new, faster, mightier, digitized Volta Voices! Our online format will only differ in platform and presentation from our retired print version, but we will continue to bring you high-quality reporting and writing from our award-winning team.

My name is Pedro Brás da Silva and I have worked as a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) in Portugal for about 20 years, almost all of them working with babies, children and adolescents who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH).

Ordinarily, I dance five days a week. I go to North Idaho College four days a week, and attend high school classes online, and work at least two days a week.

Now that school has gone virtual, kids who are deaf and hard of hearing are adjusting to the new classroom. What challenges are they facing, and what are the solutions?

El Día Internacional de la Audición se celebra el 3 de marzo, en el aniversario del nacimiento de Alexander Graham Bell.

World Hearing Day is on March 3, the same day as Alexander Graham Bell’s birthday. World Hearing Day is an initiative of the World Health Organization that brings global attention to issues about hearing loss.

Como parte de su iniciativa de Cradle to Career, AG Bell ha puesto en contacto a sus secciones estatales con sus socios corporativos para ofrecer interesantes exposiciones de aprendizaje comunitario.

As part of its Cradle to Career Initiative, AG Bell has been connecting its state chapters with its corporate partners to deliver exciting Community Learning Expos.

As a new parent, the joy, excitement and euphoria of a new baby cannot be described in words. From the first cry to the first touch, these firsts are printed on your hearts as your new baby makes his or her way into your lives.

Over the years, AG Bell has helped college students like Daniel in many ways, including learning how to communicate with roommates, asking professors to use microphones, and seeking accommodations that enabled them to succeed.

Looking for a fun place to go but not sure if it’s going to be fun or accessible? Good thing the answers are right at your fingertips. Here are a few handy apps that can help you decide what will work for you.

When you make a gift to AG Bell, you are giving families the resources they need. And you are strengthening the ability of teachers, hearing and speech therapists and audiologists to help those babies learn to hear and talk.

For individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing, there is no shortage of self-advocacy strategies one can use on a daily basis. However, during the holidays, those strategies may not be enough.

Lauren and Johannes were surprised when they discovered their brand-new baby daughter could not hear. No one in their family had hearing loss and Lauren says that Rophe was the first person she ever met who was deaf.

Since 1996, a group of very special adults who are deaf and hard of hearing have shared their life experiences to help teenagers with hearing loss learn to lead and to speak up for themselves and others.

Traveling abroad requires more preparation for any traveler, but even more so for people with hearing loss. Consider lining up accommodations, which means researching any museums, exhibits, and events you plan to visit.

Adolescence is a difficult developmental period for all children. Add a hearing loss into the mix, and a child’s life becomes even more complex.

Holidays with hearing loss were always painful for Shoshana Adelman.* She could never take part in the conversation around the table. She was taught not to interrupt anyone and instead to just sit and listen.

If you would have asked me what my journey into motherhood looked like years ago, I would have never guessed it would look the way that it does now.

In May 2019, Representatives Allison Russo and Casey Weinstein introduced House Bill 243 into the Ohio Legislature. The bill is referred to as “Madeline’s Law,” named after a young girl from Shaker Heights.

Restaurants, unlike museums or theaters, are less controlled experiences, and the environment varies considerably at different times of the day.

For Gregory Scott, trying to date with hearing loss required preparation ahead of time. “It was important to find quieter venues so I could better connect with my dates,” he says.

Darren Toh was considered lower than 0.1 percentile for speech and development. When he finally learned to speak, he soared—with an IQ higher than that of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

When I was eight-years-old, I wanted to be an “all-entologist,” a word I made up to encompass my biggest dreams.

Over the past year I have had the opportunity to speak with many parents, in various stages their child’s and family’s hearing journey.

Nearly every state in the U.S. requires newborns to be screened for hearing loss prior to discharge from the hospital.

Five days. One hundred and twenty hours. And twenty high school teenagers who are deaf and hard of hearing from around the world join together for a jam packed week and leave with lifelong friendships.

Como parte de su Iniciativa Cradle to Career, AG Bell ha puesto en contacto a sus secciones estatales con sus socios corporativos para ofrecer interesantes Exposiciones de Aprendizaje Comunitario.

As part of its Cradle to Career Initiative, AG Bell has been connecting its state chapters with its corporate partners to deliver exciting Community Learning Expos.

When I was diagnosed with a severe-to-profound bilateral hearing loss at 13 months of age, the accommodations I would someday need for my college dorm room were the furthest thing from my parents’ minds.

Being able to hear well is often an underappreciated and unacknowledged gift—until we can’t hear, or we find out someone important to us can’t hear all the sounds around them.

It was March 2009. I woke up and got my family ready for the day, thinking today was a checklist kind-of-day like every other. You know, mothers live and breathe by the checklist.

I lost my hearing progressively from early childhood. I went through school and University with a severe hearing loss and learnt to rely on lip-reading.