Yoshinaga-Itano to be honored for research

Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, professor of audiology at CU-Boulder, will be honored by the Lake Drive Foundation for Children Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Mountain Lakes, N.J. , for her research, which sparked universal newborn hearing screenings and revolutionized the early intervention movement.

According to the foundation, millions of newborns worldwide are screened for hearing loss each year as a direct result of Yoshinago-Itano’s groundbreaking research. Her work has produced evidence that babies identified with hearing loss who began early intervention within the first six months of life could develop language skills commensurate with their hearing peers.

Universal newborn hearing screening programs have now been implemented in all 50 states. In the U.S., more than 5,000 babies identified annually now have timely access to life changing early intervention services.

In addition to her work in the U.S., she has provided support to many countries advancing their own early hearing detection and intervention programs, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, Philippines, and South Africa. Recently, she also traveled to China to help audiologists with the infrastructure to improve their services and outcomes.