Title: |
'Building Newborn Hearing Screening into State Early Intervention Programs' |
Track: |
3-Early Intervention and Beyond
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Audience: |
Primary Audience:
Secondary Audience:
Tertiary Audeince:
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Keyword(s): |
EI, Regulations |
Learning Objectives: |
Create State Level Partnerships with The Early intervention Program
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Abstract: |
Studies have shown that children who have a hearing loss can have delays in speech, language, social skills, and academic achievement. Earlier identification and intervention leads to optimal outcomes for children with hearing loss. New York State (NYS) has the third highest number of annual live births in the country (247,352 births in 2009) and has a well-established early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) program. In NYS in 2009, 97.92% of infants had their hearing screened prior to discharge from the hospital. Of those infants screened in the hospital, 3.75% failed the screening and 71.61% returned post discharge from the hospital for a rescreening to determine potential hearing loss. Unique to NYS is the relationship in state regulation between the Newborn Hearing Screening Program and the Early Intervention Program (EIP) to facilitate the identification and follow up of those infants that miss or fail a newborn hearing screening. NYS has designed a referral system to early intervention whereby hospitals are required by public health law to refer infants to the local EIP who either have a failed screen or who fail to return for follow-up screening. With this model, the average age of referral to early intervention for children with hearing loss has decreased from 15 months to 3 months since the inception of the EHDI program. In addition, the EHDI and EIP data systems are designed for long term tracking of infants diagnosed with hearing loss. The implementation of this program collaboration in public health law and in practice will be discussed. |
Handouts: |
Handout is not Available
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