Aug 2017 The Hearing Journal
In the 1940s, management consultant Joseph Juran proposed the 80/20 rule or Pareto's Principle to note his observation that 80 percent of an organisation's time is typically devoted to addressing 20 percent of its responsibilities. This principle seems to be alive and well in pediatric audiology settings where about 80 percent of the clinic's time goes to providing optimal care to 20 percent of the caseload with the most challenging needs. Notably, most of these enigmatic cases are children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). Pediatric audiologist and researcher Karen Anderson, PhD, has said, “If you have seen one child with ANSD, you've seen one child with ANSD.” And while pediatric audiologists love evidence-based protocols to guide their clinical practices, this heterogeneous disorder does not readily lend itself to an orderly set of procedures. As such, we look to contemporary research and tried-and-true clinical practices to outline useful strategies in managing children with ANSD.
Editors note: for those interested in the details 10 strategies are described in their Hearing Journal article.