{"id":86971,"date":"2025-12-17T18:35:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86971\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:35:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:35:22","slug":"florida-program-provides-free-hearing-screenings-and-devices-to-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86971\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida program provides free hearing screenings and devices to children"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation of Florida <\/a>provides free hearing screenings and devices for children who need them. While hearing loss does not affect every child, families tell us that early testing and access to hearing aids can make a huge difference in a child’s development.<\/p>\n

The Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation serves kids in all 67 Florida counties, screening babies, toddlers and students.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay 28’s Keeley McCormick watched as the Sertoma team set up at a local school in Tampa, testing the students’ hearing.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Florida program provides free hearing screenings and devices to children<\/p>\n

Florida program provides free hearing screenings and devices to children across the state<\/p>\n

For parents like Nereia Wilson, the results brought peace of mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like any other parent, it\u2019s always comforting to get testing, whether it be hearing or vision,\u201d said Wilson.<\/p>\n

For Annabelle Allocco, the impact went even further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can hear my friends more now and really understand what they are saying,\u201d said Annabelle.<\/p>\n

Annabelle’s mother, Amy Allocco, explained that her daughter suffered burst eardrums and needed two hearing aids. That was a cost that her family simply could not afford.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just so expensive to buy the two hearing aids, we already had the one, and insurance doesn\u2019t cover anything basically,\u201d said Amy.<\/p>\n

The family found Sertoma and Annabelle received hearing aids at no cost. It was a change that her family said transformed her school work, confidence and love for music.<\/p>\n

Debra Golinski is the president and CEO of Sertoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about making sure that every one of our children gets the best possible future and success, so each child we screen, I truly feel we make a difference,\u201d said Golinski.<\/p>\n

Golinski also said the mission is personal to her, and it\u2019s inspired by her cousin, who is hard of hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw her struggle with being identified as not being very intelligent, only because of her speech, because she couldn’t hear to make the sounds,” said Golinski. “I never want that to happen to another child.\u201d<\/p>\n

In partnership with the Florida Department of Health, the foundation said it has screened more than 50,000 children statewide. Click here<\/a> to connect with the Sertoma team.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Keely

From finding savings to help navigate the price of paradise, to the safety of our roads, and even the latest medical breakthroughs; Keely McCormick is dedicated to helping you get the most out of your day. Share your ideas with Keely below.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After confusion, state issues guidance on what license plate frames are legal in Florida<\/p>\n

Ana Smith decided to take off the decorative plate frame she\u2019d had for more than 15 years once she realized it violated new rules. Tampa Bay 28\u2019s Chad Mills has more about the state-issued clarifications to law enforcement about license plate frame enforcement.<\/p>\n

After confusion, state issues guidance on what license plate frames are legal in Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation of Florida provides free hearing screenings and devices for children who need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[205,6422,47382,28,29,4172,3086,47383,3074,135,137,136,208],"class_list":["post-86971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-abc-action-news","tag-aid","tag-deaf","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-foundation","tag-free","tag-hard-of-hearing","tag-sunshine-state-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}