Getting to Know Your New Educational Audiologist
By Vicky Papaioannou, Educational Audiologist
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I am so very excited to be the new consulting educational audiologist at the Peel District School Board!
I am slowly getting to meet many staff and students, but it’s a big school board!! At least I can let you know a little bit of my background in the meantime.
I wanted to be an audiologist for as long as I can remember. Most people don’t even know what an audiologist is, but I was (late) identified with a unilateral hearing loss and saw my audiologist regularly. After high school, I went to Western University as, at that time, it was the only university in Ontario with an Audiology program. After my first general year at Western, I was elated to be accepted into the Department of Communication Disorders undergraduate program. Three years later, I entered the graduate program for Audiology.
My first externship experience was at the Toronto District School Board since I wanted to be an educational audiologist. My undergraduate research project was working with FM systems. I was trying to prepare myself for a future position in a school board.
"I wanted to be an audiologist for as long as I can remember. Most people don’t even know what an audiologist is, but I was (late) identified with a unilateral hearing loss and saw my audiologist regularly. "
"I wanted to be an audiologist for as long as I can remember. Most people don’t even know what an audiologist is, but I was (late) identified with a unilateral hearing loss and saw my audiologist regularly. "
For my final placement I decided to do an externship at the Hospital for Sick Children so that I could gain additional experience with children and learn about technologies like cochlear implants which were relatively new and could only be seen at a handful of places across Canada. Needless to say, I fell in love with the Hospital and then I never left!
SickKids Hospital is a very special place. The Audiology Clinic and the Otolaryngology Department are no exception! At SickKids, I started by working with what was then called the “School Program”. I tested every child who was in a Hard of Hearing class at the Toronto District School Board. It was a great opportunity to work with students and their FM equipment while being at SickKids! In the summers, I was able to meet with families at Metro Toronto School for the Deaf so that their FM equipment was set up and ready for the first day of school!
I had many other roles at SickKids over the course of 30 years. I provided weekly speech and listening therapy to children following cochlear implantation which was also very special to me. To see first hand the development of these skills over time following cochlear implantation was incredible. To see what children could do with implants that they could not do with hearing aids, was an experience I will never forget. I joined the Cochlear Implant team in 1994 and remained a part of the team until leaving SickKids in September.
"I provided weekly speech and listening therapy to children following cochlear implantation which was also very special to me. To see first hand the development of these skills over time following cochlear implantation was incredible. To see what children could do with implants that they could not do with hearing aids, was an experience I will never forget."
"I provided weekly speech and listening therapy to children following cochlear implantation which was also very special to me. To see first hand the development of these skills over time following cochlear implantation was incredible. To see what children could do with implants that they could not do with hearing aids, was an experience I will never forget."
Just as I was an Audiology student at SickKids, it was important for me to give back to students who wished to enter the field. I supervised speech language pathology and audiology students every year during my time at SickKids. It is so wonderful to see these students working all over North America, many still working regularly with children. I also had the opportunity to teach medical students and residents about Audiology and Otolaryngology and came to be an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Toronto. Teaching and research were two exciting opportunities that I was able to pursue by being at a Teaching Hospital.
With the implementation of the Infant Hearing Program in Ontario in 2002, many more children were being identified with hearing loss shortly after birth. What a privilege it was to work with these children and their families from the time that they were newborns right through to their 18th birthday when they were discharged to adult centres. It was an honor to see some of these patients have their own babies and to monitor their hearing and help them to gain access to services for their own children as well.
After spending 5 years managing the Departments of Otolaryngology and Communication Disorders at SickKids, this wonderful opportunity came up. I am happy to be in Peel as I have lived here for the past 27 years and both my children attended schools within the Peel District School Board. To work so closely with students and the wonderful teachers in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program is truly a dream come true. We are all so very lucky to be part of a Board that cares so deeply about their students.
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