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National Committee on Languages. CLASC, which I represent, is focusing specifically on four of the most critical: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian; and we have already undertaken, with foundation support, innovative programs in Arabic and Japanese. Your committee, Mr. Chairman, recognized the importance of this area in last year's bill by appropriating funds under more general existing legislation for critical languages training, which however, the Department of Education has not yet acted upon. In addition, bills have been introduced in both houses this session with provisions to authorize more targeted attention to critical languages and area studies. Given the need for more young Americans to be able to communicate around the world in areas critical to our country, I ask the committee to continue its consistent support for critical languages training and to provide funding for demonstration grants once they are authorized, hopefully later this year.

Senator HARKIN. We welcome Senator Gorton to the subcommittee.

Senator GORTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

STATEMENT OF GERALDINE DIETZ FOX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FRIENDS OF NIDCD, INC.

ACCOMPANIED BY:

RACHEL DUBIN, STUDENT, THE PARK SCHOOL, BALTIMORE, MD
CAITLAND PARTON, STUDENT, NEW YORK CITY, NY

MELODY JAMES PARTON

Senator HARKIN. Next is Geraldine Dietz Fox, accompanied by Rachel Dubin and Caitlin Parton, Friends of NIDCD.

Well, welcome again to the subcommittee, Geraldine. Your statement will be made a part of the record in its entirety. We want to welcome Rachel again.

Ms. DUBIN. Thank you.

Senator HARKIN. You have new glasses. So do I. And this is Caitland?

Miss JAMES. Caitland Parton.

Senator HARKIN. Caitland Parton. Hi, Caitland.

Miss PARTON. Hi.

Senator HARKIN. Well, Geraldine, welcome to the subcommittee. Please proceed.

Ms. Fox. Thank you, Senator Harkin, Senator Slade Gorton, and staff, Mike Hall, Margaret Stuart, Peter Reineke, Bobby Silverstein, Craig Higgins, Bettilou Taylor, Nancy Anderson, and Santo Manos. It is wonderful to back here. This is my fifth year of testifying and I am always grateful for your kindness and your generosity in supporting the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Thanks to your faith in us, and your nurturing of this Institute, this year we are expecting an explosion of 560 applications for grants. And this is double what it was when we started 2 years ago. And this will allow us a success rate of 42 percent of funding approved grants.

The professional judgment budget is $201 million and as I say, it will allow us a success rate. Our Director, Dr. James B. Snow, Jr., has said that, "We are in the midst of an accelerating period of discovery." And my written testimony discusses all of the things that we have accomplished this year. But I have brought special guests to you, and I do not want to take a lot of time today.

Rachel, you know. And she is hear to introduce 52-year-old Caitland Parton. Rachel?

Miss DUBIN. Good morning, Chairman Harkin. Today I am pleased to be here for my third appearance before this sub

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committee. I will be introducing 5-year-old Caitland Parton, the youngest cochlear implant recipient in the world. Caitland lives in New York City. Caitland lost her hearing at 23 months of age from H-flu meningitis. She was angry and precocious and that added fire to her hearing loss.

At first, Caitland tried conventional hearing aids which did not help. Then she had a 22-channel cochlear implant placed in her cochlear in an experimental operation in January 1988 at the university medical center. She now used the cochlear implant in conjunction with an FM auditory training system. Intensive speech therapy and auditory training to decode the sounds she hears have been beneficial to her.

Caitland loves to read lots of books and enjoys art work. So also loves swimming, dancing, and playground activities. Caitland has been successfully mainstreamed in the preschool program. This fearless, bright little girl has outstanding achievements. She has been featured in videos, public service announcements, and was the 1988 recipient of New York's Better Hearing and Speech Month Award.

It is an honor to introduce another young hearing impaired person who is also working very hard to achieve success in the mainstream_world. She is accompanied today by her mother, Melody James Parton.

Thank you, Senator Harkin, for allowing me to participate on behalf of funding research programs at the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communications Disabilities.

Senator HARKIN. Rachel, thank you very much. You are becoming a veteran.

Ms. DUBIN. Thank you.

Senator HARKIN. I am beginning to mark the years by your growing up and your increasing maturity.

Ms. DUBIN. Thank you.

Senator HARKIN. Well, let us turn to Caitland Parton.

Mrs. PARTON. Thank you, Senator Harkin, for allowing Caitland and I to appear here today.

Caitland, with your long hair, Senator Harkin cannot see your implant. Can you show it to him?

[Ms. Parton reveals the device.]

Mrs. PARTON. Would you like to tell him a little bit about how it work? How does it work?

Ms. PARTON. Well, this is the cochlear implant, and I have this helps me and this is what I can hear with. And what I can do with it, I can—when I cannot hear this well, I can turn it to any number to hear much better. And that, and if you are on and off, if you are off, it is zero.

Mrs. PARTON. Off is zero. All right. Do you sleep with it?

Ms. PARTON. What?

Mrs. PARTON. Do you sleep with it?

Ms. PARTON. No; because the battery will go out. [Laughter.]

Mrs. PARTON. Do you swim with it or take a bath with it?

Ms. PARTON. No; if I take a bath with it or swim with it, it will

not work. If it gets water in it, it will not work.

Mrs. PARTON. No; what do you hear when we take it off?
Ms. PARTON. Nothing.

Mrs. PARTON. But when we put it on, you do hear. What are some of your favorite sounds to listen to?

Ms. PARTON. Birds.

Mrs. PARTON. Birds. Anything else?

Ms. PARTON. Pigeons.

Mrs. PARTON. Pigeons. We have a lot of pigeons in New York, do we not?

Ms. PARTON. Yeah.

Mrs. PARTON. People do not realize how hard you have to work to speak as well as you do, so let us show the Senators some of the exercises we do at speech therapy, three times a week.

I am going to cover my mouth so you cannot see what I am saying. And you use your concentration to hear. Really listen, OK? Ms. PARTON. All right.

Mrs. PARTON. How old are you?

Ms. PARTON. Five. Five.

Mrs. PARTON. Who is Peter Pan's friend?

Ms. PARTON. Wendy.

Mrs. PARTON. Good. And who chases Peter Pan and does not like him?

Ms. PARTON. Tinkerbell.

Mrs. PARTON. Good. Oh. Is Tinkerbell Peter's friend or enemy? Ms. PARTON. Both of them.

Mrs. PARTON. Oh. Well, that is an interesting interpretation. [Laughter.]

You are right. You are right. She gets angry at Peter does she not? That is good. Where do you live?

Ms. PARTON. I live in an apartment building.

Mrs. PARTON. Right. Good. And what do you like to do? What do you like to do?

Ms. PARTON. Where?

Mrs. PARTON. At school.

Ms. PARTON. I like to play with my friends.

Mrs. PARTON. That is a good thing to like to do.

Why do you like your cochlear implant?

Ms. PARTON. Because it helps me to hear.
Mrs. PARTON. What do you like best about it?
Ms. PARTON. I like that I can hear everything.

Mrs. PARTON. Do you like to listen to yourself sing?
Ms. PARTON. What?

Mrs. PARTON. Do you like to listen to yourself sing?
Ms. PARTON. Yeah.

Mrs. PARTON. You sing a lot. Good listening.

Why do you think the cochlear implant is important?

Ms. PARTON. Because it helps people to hear.

Mrs. PARTON. Yeah. If you could change something about it,

what would you like to change?

Ms. PARTON. I do not know.

Mrs. PARTON. You do not know. Is it perfect?

Ms. PARTON. Yeah.

Mrs. PARTON. Oh. Good, OK.

Maybe the Senator wants to ask you a question, so listen.

Senator HARKIN. OK. [Laughter.]

Mrs. PARTON. You do not have to.

Senator HARKIN. You visited the Children's Museum yesterday? Ms. PARTON. Yes.

Senator HARKIN. What did you like best?

Ms. PARTON. I like that you can touch the things in the museum. Senator HARKIN. How did you get here from New York? Did you fly?

Ms. PARTON. What?

Senator HARKIN. Did you fly here from New York?

Ms. PARTON. No.

Senator HARKIN. How did you get here?

Ms. PARTON. A train.

Senator HARKIN. Oh, you rode the train down. Oh, I see. Was it fun? Was it a fun ride, did you enjoy the train?

Ms. PARTON. Good. I do, too.

Senator HARKIN. Do you have a pet dog?
Ms. PARTON. What?

Senator HARKIN. Do you have a pet dog?

Ms. PARTON. No; I have a pet cat.

Senator HARKIN. What is his name?

Ms. PARTON. Dexter.

Senator HARKIN. Say that again.

Ms. PARTON. Dexter.

Mrs. PARTON. After the jazz musician Dexter Gordon.

Senator HARKIN. I used to live in a town called Dexter, IA. And I did not know they named a cat after it. [Laughter.]

Well, thank you very much, for coming from New York.

Ms. Fox. Thank you, Senator Harkin.

Ms. PARTON. Thank you.

Senator HARKIN. Very bright. And obviously-you were the youngest child to ever receive a cochlear implant. That is pretty remarkable.

Do you feel like a pioneer?

Ms. PARTON. No! [Laughter.]

Senator HARKIN. Well, you are very brave and you are very precocious and very bright, and I know you have got a great future ahead of you. If you study hard.

Ms. PARTON. Thank you.

Senator HARKIN. If you study hard.

Ms. PARTON. What.

Senator HARKIN. You must study hard.

Ms. PARTON. Yes. [Laughter.]

Senator HARKIN. Senator Gorton.

Senator GORTON. Ms. Fox, I understand that some of my staff have been in touch with you with respect to some deafness research, and your friendship with Dr. Rubell at the University of Washington.

I wonder if you could tell me and the committee about the potential for that specific research.

Ms. Fox. The potentials for what, sir?

Senator GORTON. I understand that we have talked with you about Dr. Rubel's research at the University of Washington Department of Otolaryngology. Evidently he feels that there are already enough experts in related fields with respect to the cure and the prevention of deafness.

Ms. Fox. I did not hear most of your question, so I am going to have to answer what I did hear. You were asking about the potential of the Institute?

Senator GORTON. Yes.

Ms. Fox. And it has great potential. We had nothing 5 years ago, we did not know anything about hair cell regeneration in the inner ear, and today we have discovered that there are juvenile birds and adult birds, and fish and amphibia that can regrow hair cells after they are destroyed. And this-we have incredible researchers working on this.

Senator GORTON. Do you think that there is human potential for the same thing?

Ms. Fox. Yes; absolutely. As soon as we find out how these animals regrow them, then we will do some studies with mammals. Senator GORTON. To what extent do you feel that there is a sufficient degree of support for that kind of research now, or what could we do to create it?

Ms. Fox. Well, there is tremendous support. In fact, in your State, sir, you have a very fine researcher, Dr. Ed Rubel of the University of Washington, who is one of our, I would say, one of four or five researchers in this country who are doing incredible work. And he runs a marvelous lab. And if you have time, you must visit there because he feels that with financial support from the Congress, within 5 to 7 years, we would see hair cells growing in the human being, which would cure-it is absolutely a cure for most deafness.

Senator GORTON. That support is not available now, but if it were available, this could

Ms. Fox. The support is available. They are supporting. And I am saying with more support. They are supporting this, and it is a very fine study.

Senator GORTON. Do you have any estimate as to what degree of support would be required for what period of time?

Ms. Fox. Yes; I would say $1 million a year for 5 years.

Senator GORTON. All right. And tell me once again what you think that might accomplish.

Ms. Fox. That would accomplish a cure for many types of deafness. And the deafness would come from-such as my deafness is caused by the mumps. I am deaf in my left ear. And I caught the mumps when I was teaching school 32 years ago. It would cure deafness from loud noises. People have lost their hearing from working in construction jobs, et cetera.

Senator GORTON. What percentage, or what share of the deafness problems in the country do you think might be impacted by this kind of research?

PREPARED STATEMENT

Ms. Fox. Well, we have 2 million deaf, and 28 million hearing impaired. And I would think, personally, that over 50 percent would be helped by this. But that is just a rough guess, and it could be more, much more.

Thank you very much.

Senator GORTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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