The Sound Exchange ’26: Workshops in Focus

The Sound Exchange ’26 is your best opportunity for hands-on learning for the next, 2026-27 CPD Cycle. Kicking off the event are our pre-conference workshops on 11 May. You can register for a workshop by itself (particularly useful if you’re a Sydneysider!) or in addition to the main conference on 12-13 May.

The optional workshops give you the opportunity to maximise your learning at The Sound Exchange, with the aim of encouraging you to work towards in-depth learning outcomes over three hours.

Below, you’ll hear from presenters representing the workshops on why they chose to focus on their topic and get a sneak peek on what they’ll be discussing.

The Right Balance: Enhancing your vHIT and VEMP Technique

Improve your understanding of vestibular patient preparation, protocol and setting refinements.

This workshop will be presented by Trong Nguyen and Celia Gomes Chapman (Interacoustics).

“Together, we have both worked in the industry either clinically or closely with key opinions leaders and clinicians on a local and global level. Vestibular assessment has evolved rapidly over the past years, and we’ve stayed on top of the latest research to help guide vestibular audiologists to achieve best evidence-based practice.

“This workshop looks to develop your current knowledge for VEMPs and vHIT. This will be achieved by going through the fundamentals on test parameters, protocols and settings for each test, which then in turn enhances your clinical decision making in the practical session.

“This workshop will be very hands on, ensuring that you make the most of your time and ensuring you can take the skills you learn back to your vestibular clinics. Can’t wait to see you there!”

Delivering a Deaf Diagnosis with Care, Clarity and Confidence

Learn how to better support families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing at the moment they receive the news.

This workshop will be presented by Renee Fayad, Tamara Trinder Scacco, Alice Brennan (Deaf Children Australia), and Fiona Duncan (Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network).

For the presenters, the topic isn’t just professional – it’s deeply personal:

“This workshop will explore one of the most critical moments in an audiologist’s role: delivering a deaf diagnosis to families. The way this conversation is handled can shape a family’s emotional trajectory, influence decision-making, and have lasting effects on mental health and identity – for both the child and their support network.

“This workshop will be shaped by insights from the presenters, who have worked closely with Deaf and hard of hearing individuals, families, and communities. For Tamara and Alice, these insights will also be influenced by personal connections to deafness through their own journeys.

“We will share practical, experience-led guidance such as how to:

• lead with empathy and humanity, not just clinical facts
• use clear, strengths-based and non-deficit language
• allow space for emotional processing and questions
• avoid assumptions about communication choices or outcomes
• provide balanced, culturally informed information about Deaf identity and community.

“A key feature of this session will be interactive role-play activities, where participants will step into real-world scenarios and be able to practice the above guidelines.

“We want to leave Audiologists with one critical message: the delivery of a diagnosis is not just a clinical task – it is a defining emotional moment.”

Towards Managing Sub-Clinical Hearing Difficulties: From Identification to Intervention

This workshop introduces clinicians to working with people with sub-clinical hearing difficulties (SCHDs), a usually underserved population in audiology.

It will be presented by Dr Bec Bennett, Dr Jess Monaghan, Matt Croteau (National Acoustic Laboratories), and Dr Sriram Boothalingam (NAL and Macquarie University).

Dr Bennett penned the following on behalf of the team:

“We’re a team of researchers and clinician-scientists from the National Acoustic Laboratories who have been working closely together on the emerging area of sub-clinical hearing difficulties. Across our research and clinical work, we’ve been increasingly struck by how many adults experience genuine listening and communication challenges in everyday life, even when their hearing thresholds fall within what we traditionally label as ‘normal’. These are often thoughtful, motivated clients who know something isn’t quite right with their hearing, yet they can leave appointments without clear answers or practical strategies.

“This is exactly why this workshop matters to us. Sub-clinical hearing difficulties challenge some of the assumptions we’ve traditionally relied on in audiology and raise important questions about how we identify, assess and support these clients in clinic. Many clinicians are already encountering these cases, but without clear frameworks or tools it can feel difficult to know how best to respond. Our team has been working on several pieces of research in this area, from understanding the underlying mechanisms of listening difficulty to developing new hearing-aid fitting approaches and studying the lived experiences of people with these challenges.

“Through this workshop, our goal is to bridge that gap between research and everyday clinical practice. We’ll introduce clinicians to the concept of SCHDs, share insights from our recent research and give participants the opportunity to experience the new NAL-NL3 Minimal Hearing Loss module first-hand. We hope attendees leave with a clearer understanding of this emerging area, greater confidence recognising these clients in their own clinics and practical ideas for how to support them. Ultimately, our aim is to help clinicians feel better equipped to support a group of people who often fall through the cracks of traditional hearing care.”