| Title: |
'Innovations in Early Intervention: Restructuring a Statewide Program' |
| Track: |
9-Policy, Advocacy, and Legislative Issues
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| Audience: |
Primary Audience:
Secondary Audience:
Tertiary Audeince:
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| Keyword(s): |
statewide, program, orientation, parent infant program |
| Learning Objectives: |
1. Identify 12 components of a comprehensive EI program.
2. Describe an innovative orientation process.
3. Apply national guidelines to an innovative service model.
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Abstract: |
Initiatives in the fields of deaf education, deaf studies, audiology, pediatrics, early intervention, speech language pathology, linguistics, and cognitive development have resulted in national statements defining the need to improve services for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This need is expressed through recommendations of the National Deaf Education Project (2005), the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (2006), and the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (2007). Study of these documents reveals a field unified in commitment to high quality services through programs that are responsive, informative, collaborative, and balanced, with the expected outcome of age-appropriate communication, linguistic, social, and cognitive development.
Program evaluation in one state revealed a system that did not provide enough flexibility and intensity to achieve the expected results. As a result, a major programmatic revision was implemented. This session will address a comprehensive system of early intervention for infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Immediately after diagnosis, families begin receiving services through an intensive orientation process. During orientation, adults who are deaf or hard of hearing meet with families to discuss the impact of hearing on language development, the need for intensive early intervention, and the need to implement a language plan as early as possible. The two primary language programs described for families are ASL/English Bilingual, and Listening & Spoken Language. Communication strategies (Total Communication, Cued Language, etc) are presented within the context of these two languages.
Following orientation, flexible language-specific services are customized for each family. Services are provided by educators with a defined specialty in signed or spoken language. Language-specific services discussed during the session include: home intervention, clinic intervention, toddler groups, demonstration center, parent education, parent support groups, networking groups, individual and group Deaf Mentor services, audiological management, assessment, and related services consultation. |
| Handouts: |
Handout is not Available
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PRESENTER(S):
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Jennifer Howell - Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind
Credentials: Ed.D.
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Jennifer Johnson Howell, Ed. D. is the Associate Superintendent at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Dr. Howell is responsible for the coordination of early intervention, outreach, classroom, and residential services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing throughout the state. Dr. Howell has researched effective literacy instruction, itinerant teaching, exemplary teaching practices, caseload sizes for teachers serving students with low-incidence disabilities, statewide assessment programs, and educational needs within the field of low-incidence disabilities. Prior to completion of her doctoral degree, Dr. Howell taught students who are deaf or hard of hearing at Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Dr. Howell completed the Ed.D. program at the University of Northern Colorado, and the M.Ed. in Special Education and B.A. in Linguistics both at the University of Utah. |
Day Mullings - Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind
Credentials: M.S.
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Day Mullings, M.S., is the Program Director of the Parent Infant Program for the Deaf at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Ms. Mullings is the lead administrator, providing comprehensive services to children and families throughout the state in partnership with the Utah Department of Health Babywatch program. |
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AUTHOR(S):
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Jennifer Howell - Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind
Credentials: Ed.D.
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BIO: Jennifer Johnson Howell, Ed. D. is the Associate Superintendent at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Dr. Howell is responsible for the coordination of early intervention, outreach, classroom, and residential services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing throughout the state. Dr. Howell has researched effective literacy instruction, itinerant teaching, exemplary teaching practices, caseload sizes for teachers serving students with low-incidence disabilities, statewide assessment programs, and educational needs within the field of low-incidence disabilities. Prior to completion of her doctoral degree, Dr. Howell taught students who are deaf or hard of hearing at Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Dr. Howell completed the Ed.D. program at the University of Northern Colorado, and the M.Ed. in Special Education and B.A. in Linguistics both at the University of Utah. |
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