Beth
Benedict
Early-intervention
mentor
Nowadays, with the widespread employment
of accurate, noninvasive infant hearing-screening
tests in neonatal units, babies who are deaf
or hard-of-hearing are identified quickly,
and parents are informed even before they
leave the hospital. What happens next?
What does happen after the parents bring home their
deaf child can have a profound and lasting effect
on the child's academic success, cognitive development, and mental health . .
. as we all know. The
most urgent task is to get language to the child immediately. But how? That's
where an early-intervention professional comes in.
Beth Sonnenstrahl Benedict is a longtime mentor to
families with deaf children. A Gallaudet alumna (Class of 1980), she's a
professor in Gallaudet University's Department of Communication Studies,
where she teaches courses on Family Communication, Non-Verbal Communication,
Public Speaking, and other topics. She's
also serving as President of the American Society for Deaf Children, which
supports parents and families
with deaf children, advocating for their language rights, including their
right to have early exposure to ASL. She has advocated for collaboration
between parents of deaf children and hearing professionals, is a member of
several major governmental and non-governmental organizations, and has presented
and published widely. She has developed courses for professionals
who work with Deaf/HoH children, and serves as a consultant on early intervention
and family involvement.
On March 1, Dr. Benedict received the Antonia Brancia
Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence. The Maxon Award is presented annually by
the National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference to honor
a person or group "who have made a noteworthy accomplishment in achieving
excellence in EHDI programs" nationally or regionally. (It
honors the memory of an early-intervention pioneer.) Dr. Benedict
has been a "key figure in EHDI conference planning," and has brought Deaf
adults into
the EHDI agenda, preventing it from being focused on a narrowly oralist
perspective. There's a wide range of communication options available to families,
and she wants all families to take advantage of this.
Photo (above and flashbox): Cloe Canela/Gallaudet
University
