| Title: |
'What's So Natural About Natural Environment?' |
| Track: |
3-Early Intervention and Beyond
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| Audience: |
Primary Audience:
Secondary Audience:
Tertiary Audeince:
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| Keyword(s): |
early intervention; natural environment; IDEA; highly qualified personnel |
| Learning Objectives: |
Understand the meaning and intent of the term "natural environment"
Evaluate and discuss the current literature and research on natural environments
Identify effective settings for early intervention for children with hearing loss
Formulate a justification statement for a more flexible definition of "natural environment” based on current literature and research
Engage in a discussion to identify methods to monitor child outcomes in different settings
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Abstract: |
There has been a national dialog about the definition of “natural environment” as it applies to intervention for infants and young children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Experts agree that natural environment has been misinterpreted to mean that all intervention must occur in the home. In D.D. vs. Foothill SELPA, the court ruled that center-based intervention is an appropriate environment due to the expertise of the professional providing service working alongside the parent.
In 2004, the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education called for “a national conference on closing the gaps in services and programs for infants and young children with hearing loss.” OSEP believed that there was a crisis in the delivery of services to children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. One of the issues that the conference tackled was “natural environment” as the term applies to this specific population. They stated that, “in some regions, natural environment has been misinterpreted to mean exclusively ‘home-based intervention.’” In addition, when there are limited numbers of highly-qualified early interventionists who specialize in hearing impairment, in order to provide high-quality service to the greatest number of families, it is more effective to provide services in a combination of home-based and center-based settings.
Presentation will include background information about recent literature and research on the topic of natural environments, a description of the needs of infants and young children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, a discussion about effective intervention settings and the impact of the shortage of highly qualified personnel on delivery of quality service. This will be important to EDHI programs to open a national dialogue on the effectiveness of natural environments. Have we done enough to close the gaps in service nationally?
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| Handouts: |
Handout is not Available
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