BC Family Hearing Programs & Services

Print

Making A Difference In The Lives Of Children In 2006-2007

Our goal:

  • For children to achieve communication skills that are appropriate for their chronological and/or cognitive age.

Our basic strategies:

  • We help parents acquire the skills, information, and selfconfidence need to help their own children succeed.

  • We provide specialized training and consultation related to hearing loss to other community professionals.

This year the BC Family Hearing Resource Society celebrates it’s 25th year of providing family-centered services for over two decades. Our society offers a range of services for children birth to age five and their families. We consider parents to be an essential and equal partner in the habilitation process.

The BC Family Hearing Resource Society operates two primary programmes for families with young children. The BC Family Hearing Resource Centre is the name of our provincial program serving deaf and hard of hearing children. The Surrey Early Speech and Language Program (SESLP) is the name of our program serving children in the local community who have speech and language learning challenges unrelated to hearing loss.

  • 13,439 hours of early intervention services were received by deaf and hard of hearing children and children with speech and language difficulties from BCFHRS
  • 1,029 hours of training/education were also provided to community service providers

Brochures and Program Descriptions

Overview of Programs & Services
English
Punjabi
Chinese

Outreach
Our staff provide support, information, and specialized training to parents as well as to other community service providers involved in the young child’s life. Families from outside the lower mainland travel to the centre to attend intensive education and support programs that last from two to five days. Our teachers and speech/language pathologists also travel to communities throughout BC to work with families and their local team of community service providers. We have been providing programs and services to outreach communities for over 20 years.

Parent-to-Parent Support Network- Mentoring
Parents in smaller communities often have limited opportunities to talk with other parents of children with a hearing loss. Our Family Support Parent coordinates our Provincial Parent to Parent Support Network, which assists parents to connect with each other throughout the province. Parents have the opportunity to be matched with parent mentors who can help provide them with essential information and support.

Library
Our provincial resource library has been a source of information to hundreds of parents, teachers, speech/language pathologists, audiologists, and other professionals from across the province. The library's specialized collection of over 3,000 books, journals, and educational videos provides information on all aspects of hearing loss, communication development, and parenting. It also has books written by parents and by adults who grew up with a hearing loss. Because we encourage parents to promote early literacy skills, our children’s lending library also includes hundreds of excellent children’s books for the early years.

Partners and Playmates Group - for ages 18 months to 3 years
Parents learn how to encourage communication, social, and play skills in their young children. This group also gives the parents an opportunity to connect with other parents and to learn ways to encourage the use of hearing aid and cochlear implant equipment and to promote early speech and language development.

Bouncy Babies
A Parent – Infant Group Designed for Parents and their infants with a hearing loss.

PALS
A unique language-enhanced learning environment for young deaf and hard of hearing children and their families.

PEER
A program designed for hard of hearing preschoolers and their parents/guardians.

Initial Assessments and Ongoing Progress Evaluations
Teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing and speech/language pathologists analyze all aspects of a child’s communication development, evaluate progress, and develop therapy plans based on the information gathered through the assessment process.

Individualized Family Service Plan
Teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing and speech/language pathologists work together with the parents to develop an individualized plan for each child and their family. This plan establishes appropriate goals and strategies to be used by the family and our staff to help the child develop speech, language, and auditory skills.

Speech and Language Therapy
Individual therapy sessions for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and their parents are available to facilitate speech, language, and auditory development. These sessions are individualized to meet the needs of families and may include parents, grandparents, siblings, and other caregivers.

Cochlear Implant Habilitation
Children using cochlear implants receive services from teachers of the deaf and speech/language pathologists who are specially trained in cochlear implant habilitation.

Sign Language
Families who have chosen to use sign language with their child can receive individual sign language instruction from one of our sign language instructors. These sessions take place at the centre and at home.

Copyright © 2008 BC Family Hearing Resource Society. All rights reserved.