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News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

November 10, 2003

NIU Speech and Hearing Clinic to provide
free hearing screenings at Golden Years

DeKalb — Northern Illinois University’s Speech and Hearing Clinic will offer free hearing screenings from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, Nov. 20, at Golden Years Plaza.

Joe Delorier, a clinic audiologist for 30 years, and four graduate students will visit the plaza at 507 E. Taylor St. to conduct the screenings with portable audiometers. Each screening will take up to 20 minutes, including the evaluation and the subsequent counseling.

“We’re providing screenings for any of the residents there who want them, just as a service with no charge,” clinic Director Anne Davidson said. “This is something simply to help the community and foster our outreach mission.”

“Most of us do lose some hearing as we age, especially in the high frequencies, some of which carry the understanding of speech,” Delorier said. “It’s always good to have it checked to determine to what extent hearing loss exists. Members of this population may be a little reluctant to initialize measures to help themselves with whatever hearing loss they may have.”

Senior citizens should have their hearing checked once a year, he said, or whenever they notice change. Hearing loss is more common as people age because of damage to the hair cells in the inner ear from a variety of factors, including the accumulated effects of noise exposure across the lifespan.

John Stolte, director of NIU’s gerontology program, said the Nov. 20 event is the first in a growing collaboration between the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences and Golden Years Plaza to promote wellness among the elderly.

Key players in the partnership are Margy Scarl, manager of resident activities and services at Golden Years; Mitch Hallgren, executive director of the DeKalb County Housing Authority; Shirley Richmond, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences; and Alan Robinson, the college’s director of outreach.

Plans for further wellness promotion include exercise programs, nutritional assessments and advice and balance and vision testing.

“These are the sorts of things a number of people within the College of Health and Human Sciences can find a niche in,” Stolte said. “We’re just delighted.”

NIU’s Speech and Hearing Clinic always offers free hearing screenings for individuals of all ages in its facility on Lucinda Avenue in the heart of campus. For further information, or to schedule an appointment, call (815) 753-1481.

The clinic is open year-round and annually provides speech-language assessments and family-based treatment to more than 1,000 patients as well as hearing evaluations and hearing aid evaluations and fittings to more than 1,000 individuals.

Outreach speech-language and hearing screenings reach more than 2,000 people living in DeKalb, Boone, DuPage, Kane, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

The clinic also provides clinical education for 125 graduate students and in-service learning activities for as many as 140 undergraduate students.

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