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NEW UNCG CENTER TO DEVELOP TRAINING GUIDELINES
FOR AIDING YOUNG CHILDREN WITH HEARING PROBLEMS
GREENSBORO—North Carolina and 40 other states now require that newborn babies be screened for hearing disabilities before they leave the hospital, and increasing numbers of infants have been diagnosed with hearing problems through the testing.
But with all the new information emerging about this growing population of infants, what effective methods are available for professionals to assist families in coping and making decisions about their children?
A new national center at The University of North Carolina Greensboro, the Center for Early Intervention Professionals in Hearing Impairment (CEIP-HI), is addressing the issue. The center has been established to develop materials and guidelines for training professionals to meet the special needs of infants and toddlers who are deaf and hard of hearing, and their families.
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“While professionals can differ over the best method of intervention, no one disagrees that these infants and children with hearing problems need to receive help as early as possible in their lives,” said Dr. Mary V. Compton, one of the three UNCG faculty members overseeing the center. “We want this program to bring the best thinking and best practices together and make them available. This center can become a resource for professionals across the country.”
UNCG’s new center is the only one of its kind, funded with a grant of $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education. The work is very important, Compton said, because approximately 24,000 American infants are diagnosed with hearing loss annually, a number that is far greater than a decade ago, when children received hearing tests when they started kindergarten. Today, those numbers comprise a new and growing group who require early intervention. The impetus for testing in North Carolina grew out of the Newborn Infant Hearing and Screening Act of 1999.
More information on deaf education is available online at: www.uncg.edu/ses, www.oraldeafed.org, www.nad.org, and www.deafchildren.org.
On June 7-8, the center brought more than 20 national authorities, its “Partners,” to Greensboro. CEIP-HI partners include representatives from institutions of higher education, professional organizations, state governmental agencies, and families of infants and toddlers who are deaf and hard of hearing. They had the opportunity to collaborate and identify national experts to assist in the identification of professional competencies and skills supporting the development of web-based modules and materials. These modules will be offered via the Internet, contributing to the education of students who graduate with training to work with infants and toddlers who are deaf and hard of hearing and their families.
Compton and her colleagues, Dr. Edgar Shroyer and Dr. Judith Niemeyer, are faculty members in the Department of Specialized Education Services in the UNCG School of Education. The department has become a leader in the state for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. Collectively, they hold more that $6 million in contracts or funded research in education of the deaf and hard of hearing and deaf interpreting. Their grant proposal for the new center was selected unanimously from a group of more than 20 institutions.
The center’s focus is on preparing materials that are field-tested by professionals in deaf education, early intervention, child development and other related fields. CEIP-HI’s approach is multidisciplinary, incorporating a range of philosophies and methods.
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“The guidelines we’ll be developing are the beginning of a national curriculum for preparing professionals to work with these very young children,” said Shroyer. “A lot of the early intervention people now in the field will have to serve greater numbers of children who are deaf and have some degree of hearing loss. Many don’t have a lot of experience with this very young age group.”
In North Carolina alone, it is estimated that 600 infants with some type of hearing loss will be identified each year and will be in need of services to facilitate their growth and development. The center’s five-year program is necessary because the effects of hearing loss pervade every aspect of an infant’s development. The acquisition of language skills is a significant challenge for infants who have a hearing loss unless they and their families receive specialized training and guidance from skilled professionals. Early diagnosis in the critical period from birth to age three is possible today through advances in technology.
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Niemeyer stressed the point that effectively trained professionals are best able to support families in participating in early intervention services. She said, “Children with hearing loss can perform on par with peers when early intervention services are provided by trained professionals.”
According to Niemeyer, infants and toddlers with a hearing loss are at great risk for learning and social problems as they grow, “Delays in language can impact emotional and social development resulting in learning and social challenges placing children at risk for poor academic achievement and ‘dropping out’ of school.”
Ultimately, the center has the opportunity to develop a national specialist certification program for professionals serving infants and toddlers who are deaf and hard of hearing and their families. This certification would provide uniformity in the field and would be similar to that offered by other professional organizations.
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