Dean of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education
Past President of the Academic Board
A Director of the Bionic Ear Institute
Chair of the National Acoustic Laboratories Research Committee
A Director of Australian Hearing

Measurement of infant hearing
Neonatal hearing screening programs
Educational outcomes of early diagnosis and intervention
Reading comprehension in deaf students

Wake, M., Poulakis, Z., Hughes, E.K., Carey-Sargeant, C., & Rickards, F.W. (2005). Hearing impairment: A population study of age at diagnosis, severity, and language outcomes at 7-8 years. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 90, pp. 238-244.

Russ, S.A., Poulakis, Z., Wake, M., Barker, M., Rickards, F., Jarman, F.C., Saunders, K., Edwards, G., Symons, L., & Oberklaid, F. (2005). The distraction test: The last word? Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 41, pp. 197-200.

Russ, S.A., Kuo, A.A., Poulakis, Z., Barker, M., Rickards, F.W., Saunders, K., Jarman, F.C., Wake, M., & Oberklaid, F. (2004). Qualitative analysis of parents’ experience with early detection of hearing loss. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, (89), 353-358.

Wake, M., Hughes, E.K., Poulakis, Z., Collins, C. & Rickards, F.W. (2004). Outcomes of children with mild-profound congenital hearing loss at 7 to 8 years: A population study. Ear & Hearing , (25), 1-8.

Rickards, F. W. (2003). Audiology and the educational management of children with hearing loss. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Audiology, 25, 1-9.

Russ, S.A., Poulakis, Z., Barker, M., Wake, M., Rickards, F.W., Saunders, K., & Oberklaid, F. (2003). Epidemiology of congenital hearing loss in Victoria, Australia. International Journal of Audiology, 42, 385-390.

Byrnes, L.J., Sigafoos, J., Rickards, F.W., & Brown, P.M. (2002). The inclusion of students with hearing impairment in government schools in New South Wales, Australia: The development and implpementation of a policy. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 7 (3), 244-257.

Cone-Wesson, B., Parker, J., Swiderski, N., & Rickards, F.W. (2002). The auditory steady-state response: Full-term and premature neonates. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology 13, 260-269.

Cone-Wesson, B., Rickards, F.W., Poulis, C., Parker, J., Tan, L., & Pollard, J. (2002). The auditory steady-state response: Clinical observations and applications in infants and children. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 13, 270-282

Rance, G., & Rickards, F.W. (2002). Prediction of hearing threshold in infants using auditory steady-state evoked potentials. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 13, 236-245.

Russ, S.A., Rickards, F.W., Poulakis, Z., Barker, M., Saunders, K., & Wake, M. (2002). Six year effectiveness of a population based two tier infant hearing screening programme. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 86, 245-250.

Brown, P.M., Rickards, F.W., & Bortoli, A. (2001). Structures underpinning pretend play and word production in young hearing children and children with hearing loss. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 6 (1), 15-31.

Van Kraayenoord, C., Elkins, J., Palmer, C., & Rickards, F.W. (2001). Literacy for all: Findings from an Australian study. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 48 (4), 445-456.

Professor Field Rickards was appointed to the Foundation Chair in Education of Hearing Impaired Children at the beginning of 1994 after four years as a Reader in charge of the Deafness Studies Unit.

Prior to this appointment he was a Senior lecturer in Audiology in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Audiological Society of Australia.

Professor Rickards has published widely on deafness in children in both audiology and educational contexts and holds both national and international patents for a computer-based Evoked Response Audiometer used for measuring hearing in young babies. He has thirty years experience in the clinical and educational management of the hearing impaired. In addition, he has consulted to government and private industry. His current research interests include the early detection, diagnosis and early educational intervention in children with hearing loss. Currently he is part of a National Institutes for Health funded team investigating the genetics and learning outcomes in mild hearing loss in primary aged children, and through the Australian Research Council is studying language outcomes in pre-school children with hearing loss.

Professor Rickards became Dean of the Faculty of Education on 1st August 2004 and is Past President of the Academic Board.