Meet Founder Richard Kaner, M.A., FAAA

I started my career almost 45 years ago. While a student at Queens College, I was interested in human communication, so I started taking courses in psychoacoustics and linguistics. This piqued my interest in how babies acquire speech and language which subsequently led to me studying the field of speech and language pathology. What I found most interesting was how a child’s hearing affects their speech and language development. This led to the realization that proper hearing function is one of the most important factors of childhood cognitive and language development which led me to a master’s degree track in audiology.

Following my clinical studies in audiology, I completed a master’s level original research project in “Sound Quality Measures of Different Transducer Types” and ultimately a Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders. I have since pursued a career in private practice audiology and hearing loss treatment. I felt this was the best and most effective way to educate patients and their families about the effects of not treating hearing loss as well as the resulting impact on the brain.

Over the past four decades, I have treated nearly 100,000 patients with hearing loss. But there are millions more with untreated hearing loss who are not attaining the quality of life they are capable of, and that is what keeps me motivated. My ultimate goal is to change the stigma associated with hearing loss, and by doing so, to increase the cognitive function of people as they age.