PORA! 29.01. Austrian Cochlear Implant Society (ÖCIG – Österreichische Cochlear-Implant-Gesellschaft)

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We invite you to PORA! on 29.1.23 with MSc.Tobias Fischer. –>Profile<–
He was the first child in Germany to receive a cochlear implant. The surgery was performed by Prof. Ernst Lehnhardt in 1988. Tobias studied at the University of Applied Sciences Gießen Friedberg in Germany and has been working vor 14 years for an aerospace company as a systems engineer. He supports as a volounteer the ÖCIG

>>-Recording is in work.<<-
You can watch the presentation as pdf

  • Very personal journey into hearing  – Tobias has the CI already 35 years (1st CI in 1988, 2nd CIs in 2007)
  • Comments of the teacher for the deaf – Prof. Bodo Bertram (he worked in the rehabilitation center in Hanover with 1400 children with CI and saw their results in 20-25 years)
  • Short videos – before surgery, therapy with Prof. Dr. Bodo Bertram (1990)
  • History of the Austrian Cochlear Implant society ÖCIG
  • Goals of the ÖCIG
  • Social and cultural activities
  • Hosting educational events and workshops
  • Events in 2022 (conferences, workshops, 30th anniversary of ÖCIG, etc.)
  • Events in 2023:
    – a project Listen up, t    he output would be a campaign to raise awareness of the issue of deafness/hard of hearing.
    – project “Easy Rehabilitation”. Aim of the project: To have a possible concept for such in-patient rehabilitation services.
  • Services for ÖCIG Members
  • Cooperation with CI and HA companies
  • Interaction, exchange of experience with specialists, societies in the field of hearing
  • Representing ÖCIG at the EURO-CIU (European Cochlear Implant Users Association) conference in Rotterdam in 2022
  • Contacts

Profile: Tobias Fischer

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Tobias Fischer, MSc was the first child in Germany to receive a cochlear implant. The surgery was performed by Prof. Ernst Lehnhardt in 1988.

Tobias was born in 1984 in Wetzlar, Germany. At the age of three, he lost his hearing after contracting bacterial meningitis.
With the support of his parents, Dr Bodo Bertram and the early intervention center in Friedberg, he learned to hear and speak again.
With his cochlear implant, he was able to attend a regular school.
He then completed an apprenticeship as a communications electronics technician and studied at the University of Applied Sciences Gießen Friedberg.
He graduated with a B.Eng. in Microsystems Technology and Electronics.
In 2007, he received his second Cochlear Implant in Frankfurt a.M..
During his studies, he met his future wife and moved to Vienna in 2009 to live with her.
From 2011-2013 Tobias completed a part-time Master’s degree in Innovation and Technology Management with the title MSc.
Since 2009 he has been working for an aerospace company as a systems engineer.

In his spare time, he provides support to other CI users and hearing impaired people as a Cochlear volunteer and as a member of the Austrian Cochlear Implant Society (ÖCIG).

PORA! 15th January “Product presentation: implantable hearing and bone conduction solutions”

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Welcome to our first PORA Webinar in the New Year 2023!

Our speaker – Gaby Thierbach – will introduce us to various implantable hearing and bone conduction solutions, she will talk about her work in clinics and share her experiences as a mother of a son with CI.

 Gaby Thierbach joined the Australian company Cochlear 30 years ago, two years after Prof. Ernst Lehnhardt provided her son with a Cochlear Implant in Hannover.
In the same year (1991) already she founded a self-help group for parents of hearing-impaired children and she launched  the initiative “I want to hear” in Germany.
1995 she relocated to Lucerne / Switzerland so that her son could enjoy the therapy of the world-renowned teacher Susann Schmid-Giovannini (PORA! DECEMBER’22)

Among the outstanding achievements of her now more than 30 years of professional activities are:
– support Prof. Ernst Lehnhardt and Prof. Roland Laszig introducing CI programmes in Turkey, Spain and Greece
– active support of the introductory campaign for Baha in Switzerland
– consulting during surgical interventions in various clinics in Switzerland
– organization of conferences and workshops on various topics including rehabilitation for different target groups
– launching the DVD “Hören mit CI” (individual version developed in collaboration with clinics in Switzerland based on “I want to hear” initiative for potential CI candidates and parents)
–  Participation with final exam in the Comenius program QUESWHIC, organized by the Lehnhardt foundation and financially supported by EU

PORA! Forum Discussion 11.12. with Susann Schmid-Giovannini and Emilia Leongard

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There are only very few educators for hearing impaied children from German-speaking Central Europe and Russia whose names are well-known and highly respected all over the world. We cordially invite you to participate in the forum-discussion on December 11 with the teacher for early intervention Susann SCHMID-GIOVANNINI from Austria and the scientist-therapist for the hearing impaired/surdopedagogue Emilia LEONGARD from Russia. Both ladies have been working persistently, consistently and successfully in early hearing and speech education for hearing-impaired children in Switzerland respectively Russia for several decades. They are two of the great ladies in contemporary international and interdisciplinary education for the hearing impaired.

Es gibt nur sehr wenige Hörgeschädigtenpädagogen aus dem deutschsprachigen Mitteleuropa und Russland, deren Namen man in aller Welt kennt und mit Hochachtung nennt. Wir laden Sie herzlich ein, an der Forum- Diskussion am 11. Dezember mit der Frühpädagogin Susann SCHMID-GIOVANNINI aus Österreich und der Wissenschaftlerin-Hörtherapeutin/Surdopädagogin Emilia LEONGARD aus Russland teilzunehmen. Beide Damen arbeiten seit mehreren Jahrzehnten in der Schweiz bzw. Russland beharrlich, konsequent und erfolgreich in der frühen Hör-Spracherziehung für hörgeschädigte Kinder. Sie sind zwei der großen Frauengestalten der internationalen und interdisziplinären Hörgeschädigtenpädagogik der Gegenwart.

 

PORA! 27.11. “Telepractice in the CI journey. One size does not fit all”

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We invite you to PORA! on 27.11.22 at 15.00 CET with Colleen Psarros from Australia.
Colleen has 33 years of experience in the cochlear implant field, she is working as a research coordinator in the Asia Pacific region for Cochlear. –>Profile<–

Telepractice in hearing health care was, in general,  highly underutilised until the COVID-19 pandemic. Barriers and facilitators for its use in CI service delivery prior to the pandemic were predominantly organisationally based. Clinical models and protocols were structured around within clinic care with clinicians acting as the gatekeepers to accessing novel methods of care. With the pivot to telepractice due to the pandemic we have identified the psychosocial factors that contribute to potential underutilisation of telepractice. In this session we will identify ways we can bridge existing gaps in use of a telepractice method of CI care, but most importantly identify ways users of CI and their families can access the model of care best suited to their needs.

Profile: Colleen Psarros

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Colleen has spent the last 33 years working in the field of cochlear implants. During that time she has had the great fortune to work with families of newborns diagnosed with significant hearing losses all the way through ages and abilities up to adults in their 90’s in their cochlear implant journeys.

Colleen’s role as an audiologist and speech pathologies has predominantly been working clinically, managing clinical practice and research within one of the largest CI clinics in Australia. She is passionate about family and patient centred care and is a staunch believer that CI recipients and their families must be given more opportunities for autonomy of care. After 8 years of working toward her PhD, Colleen is soon to submit her thesis which has focussed on the use of telepractice in a CI model of care which has taken a very different turn in direction to what she originally intended.
A fun fact is that Colleen spent a year working with Dr Lehnhardt in Basel during which time she visited some of the emerging centres beginning in eastern Germany and Europe.
When Colleen is not working as a research coordinator in the Asia Pacific region for Cochlear, she is spending time with her dog on the beach, or catching up on the latest tik tok trends with her 3 young adult children.

PORA! Forum-Discussion on November 20th “Soon a school child! This is how we facilitate children with a hearing impairment the transition from kindergarten into school”

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At the meeting on Sunday, 20.11. at 15.00 (CET time) we will discuss the topics for which we did not have time at the last meeting:
  • Special needs preschool groups cases
  • Delayed enrolment (start) to educational establishment
  • First contact with the teacher

Gisela Batliner will answer your questions on this topic. Send them in advance by leaving a comment here or by sending an email to liubov.wolowik@lehnhardt-academy.net

PORA! November 6th “Soon a school child! This is how we facilitate children with a hearing impairment the transition from kindergarten into school”

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The above-mentioned topic will be presented by the German MA, clinical linguist and SLP Gisela Batliner at the Webinar that will take place on Sunday, November, 6. With 39 years of experience, her work is based on the Natural Auditory Oral Approach (NAOA by Morag Clark). Profile

This topic may be interesting for:
defectologists, speech therapists, teachers for the deaf, parents of children with hearing impairments,
educators and teachers of public general and specialized kindergartens and schools.

Key points on this topic:

  • Preparation for written language acquisition
  • Developing independent hearing aid use
  • Self-confidence
  • School vocabulary
  • Special needs preschool groups cases
  • Delayed enrolment (start) to educational establishment
  • First contact with the teacher