Hearing research around the world
18/08/2026
In June, the Childhood Deafness and Hearing Research Team took to the skies to share their research and build international collaborations.
A/Prof Valerie Sung delivered the opening keynote at the AG Bell Spoken Language and Listening Symposium in Washington, DC. The presentation showcased the Australian National Childhood Hearing Health Outcomes Registry as a way to collect and connect child hearing health information into a national data system and research platform.
Valerie then joined fellow team members Libby Smith, Irene Kearsey, Nathania Yong, and PhD students Jinzi Bai and Karen Liddle at the Hearing Across the Lifespan (HeAL) conference in Padova, Italy. Together, the team delivered 16 presentations spanning newborn hearing screening, child wellbeing and academic outcomes, congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV), learning health systems, and family-centred care.
The Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP), administered by the Centre for Community Child Health, was represented by VIHSP Director Dr Melinda Barker, who presented findings from a randomised controlled trial evaluating a new information video designed to support families following newborn hearing screening.
The team then travelled to Austria for the Family-Centred Early Intervention (FCEI) conference in Bad Ischl. Valerie’s keynote, ‘Innovating with care: Embracing technological advances for deaf and hard of hearing children’, discussed the interplay between innovation and compassion and the importance of authentic inclusion of families with lived experience and voices of children in shaping holistic care. A particular highlight of the conference was its strong integration of family and lived-experience perspectives, reinforcing the importance of partnering with children and families to shape research and services.
Opportunities for collaboration
Researchers from Australia, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway established a new international network of longitudinal child hearing cohorts. A meeting is already scheduled to explore collaborative research that will use existing cohort studies to answer important questions that cannot be addressed by individual studies alone.
The team also visited Pyhrn-Eisenwurzen Hospital in Steyr, Austria, the first hospital in the country to implement universal congenital CMV screening for newborns. Learning how the program has been successfully sustained over the past seven years will help inform Australian efforts to strengthen the evidence base for earlier diagnosis and intervention.
It was a whirlwind month of travel, but one that reinforced the value of international collaboration. The team returned to Melbourne with new knowledge, stronger partnerships, and fresh momentum to improve outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing children and their families.
Learn more about the Centre’s Child Deafness and Hearing Research Program
