Working with your Early Intervention Team

Assessment

Parents of infants and young children with hearing loss commonly ask the following questions:

• What can my child hear?
• Will my child talk?
• Will sign language be helpful?
• Will my baby’s speech sound different?
• How do I know which method to choose?
• Is there proof that one method is better than the other?
• How will I know which method will work with my baby?

Answers to these questions vary from child to child and family to family. Discovering answers to the above questions usually involves:

• knowing where you are now (supported by results of various assessments and your observations)
• knowing where you want to go (your goals for your child) and how you are going to try to get there (the strategies you will use)
• regularly evaluating where you along the way and measuring development of abilities that show what is working (reassessment), and
• investigating and making adjustments necessary to reach the goals (review)

How Do You Discover What Works Best for Your Baby?

Your involvement in assessments and information gathering, defining outcomes, observing abilities, and making appropriate adjustments is a family focused approach to early intervention that enables the discovery of what works best for your child.

How Assessments Help Prevent Delays

Assessment tools are carefully selected to provide information that measures various aspects of communication development. Together with your early interventionist, completing assessments every 6 months helps to identify what is working well and to immediately pick up on any areas of concern. The results of the assessments and any new information to consider are then used to develop the Individualized Family Service Plan. The IFSP reflects what is currently happening to facilitate optimal language and communication development that we know is critical in the early years for later success socially, emotionally, and academically.

Assessment is individualized to child and family needs, and typically includes standardized, norm referenced instruments that involve parent observations. Assessments are selected depending on child’s chronological and developmental age; supplemental tools may be recommended.

What One Family has to say about the Assessments (from CHIP Parents section)

"I have three children; my middle child and youngest child are hearing impaired. Both children had their first assessments at three months of age and have been regularly assessed since. The assessments are a valuable tool. They help me to have an objective view of how my children are doing and how I am doing. The assessments show in what areas my children are doing well, and in what areas my children need work. When the assessments come back, my children's service providers and I are able to update our goals and decide if we need to change our plan of action. The assessments are a good motivation for me. If the results aren't as good as I would like, I'm motivated to work harder because I know my children are capable of doing better, but they need my help. If the results are as good as I expected, I'm motivated because it's so rewarding to see how good intervention pays off. If a fundamental part of language acquisition is missed early on, it will have life long consequences. The assessments help to make sure our team isn't missing anything." - Jeannene Evenstad