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Audiology Services

Children's Care Hospital & School offers comprehensive diagnostic evaluation and screening methods to help assess the conditions of a child's hearing, regardless of age or developmental/neurodevelopmental state.

It is imperative that a child's primary physician, parent, allied health professional, educator, or support staff have access to a comprehensive audiology department when questions arise about a child's hearing sensitivity and listening abilities.

Evaluations at Children's Care:

  • Transient Otoacoustic Emission Screening and Evaluation
  • Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission Screening and Evaluation
  • Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA)
  • Conditioned Play Audiometry
  • Immittance Testing- Tympanometry
  • Acoustic Reflex Testing
  • Eustachian Tube Function Test
  • Auditory Brainstem Response Testing (ABR)
  • Auditory Middle Latency Response Testing (AMLR)
  • Late-latency/ Cortical Auditory Potential Testing
  • Central Auditory Processing Testing
  • Autism Team Evaluation including hearing/listening assessment
  • Hearing Aid/ FM/ Soundfield Verification

 

Aural Rehabilitation at Children's Care:

  • Assistive Listening Device Fitting
  • FM System Fitting
  • Classroom Sound field Fitting/Modification
  • Auditory Training and Therapy
  • Speechreading
  • Auditory Skills Development Assessment
  • Hearing Aid Fittings/ Modification

As with all services at Children's Care, audiology approaches each child's case in an interdisciplinary manner, working with speech-language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and other pediatric specialists to provide treatment for the whole child.

Children's Care has these specialists on staff, or is happy to work with the child's team in his or her school district or medical facility.

Only about 11% of children who have a hearing loss actually report having a hearing difficulty, therefore, 90% of referrals for assessment are due to concerns identified by professionals and parents. As such, it is vitally important to have a child's hearing evaluated whenever professionals and parents have concern.

In fact, it has been found that children with even a minimal degree of hearing loss (20dBHL) have a one in three chance of failing one grade due to the academic impact of hearing loss. These are the children that fall through the cracks; children with hearing loss that goes undetected by simple screenings.

Early intervention for children with hearing loss is the clear goal that we all strive to attain. It is because of early alerts and referrals by caring professionals and parents that we can hope to achieve this goal.

Our Staff:
Dr. BrueggemanAudiology services at Children's Care are led by Dr. Paul Brueggeman (Au.D., CCC-A, FAAA). Dr. Brueggeman provides comprehensive hearing and listening evaluations for inpatients and outpatients, as well as aural rehabilitation programs to optimize children's ability to communicate after a diagnosis of hearing loss.

He provides hearing screenings for the Autism Evaluation Team led by pediatric psychiatrist David Ermer, M.D., and for the Early Development Clinic led by Jerry Blake, M.D. and Rebecca Mork, CNP, both held at the Children's Care Rehabilitation Center, at 1100 West 41st Street in Sioux Falls. Dr. Brueggeman's services are also available at Children's Care in Rapid City.

Dr. Brueggeman, who earned his doctorate in audiology through a cooperative program between Central Michigan University and Vanderbilt University, specializes in behaviorally assessing the "difficult-to-test" pediatric and adolescent population.

Prior to joining the staff at Children's Care, he was an assistant professor for ten years in the communication disorders department at the University of South Dakota. He has served on FASD, Down Syndrome, Neuro-developmental, and Autism clinics through Sanford USD School of Medicine's Center for Disabilities. His current research includes an ASHA (American Speech-Language Hearing Association) grant-funded project investigating middle ear functioning in South Dakota's Native American population.

Dr. Brueggeman's clinical, research, and teaching experience, as well as his compassion, patience, and expertise, makes him a valuable addition to the interdisciplinary team at Children's Care.

 

Children's Care in Sioux Falls has 11 speech/language pathologists and an audiologist to help children achieve effective communication through better speech, language, and cognitive skills, as well as hearing, listening, and aural rehabilitation services.

"Of course the best part of working at Children's Care are the kids and families I meet everyday. The courage, passion and love that you feel from them is amazing and makes me feel very blessed to be part of this organization. I also love working among individuals of various educational backgrounds because I am able to learn something new everyday from them. Everyone is always so willing to volunteer to lend a hand or answer a question when asked."
– Megan J., Rehab Center Therapy Supervisor