Essential Elements in Early Intervention by Chen Deborah;

Author:Chen, Deborah; [Chen, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: EDUCATION / Special Education / Physical Disabilities
ISBN: 5481630
Publisher: American Foundation for the Blind Press
Published: 2014-02-17T15:30:50+00:00

Collaborating with the Audiologist

An audiologist is a professional who is trained to administer and interpret clinical hearing evaluations and to prescribe hearing aids and assistive listening devices when appropriate. The activities and evaluative procedures conducted by audiologists are detailed in Chapter 7. An audiologist has a master’s or doctoral degree in audiology and professional certification in the form of a state license or certificate of clinical competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

An early interventionist who serves a child with a hearing loss and his or her family needs to work closely with an audiologist to provide appropriate interventions that address the child’s needs, such as the care of hearing aids, helping the child wear and use hearing aids, and monitoring the child’s response to hearing aids. This close relationship and collaboration is often facilitated when the early interventionist has a background in hearing loss, such as a professional credential in teaching deaf and hard of hearing children, nursing, or speech and language therapy. However, in the majority of cases, early interventionists serving children with visual impairments and other disabilities do not have a background in hearing loss; nevertheless, such a collaboration with the audiologist should be initiated for several reasons. First, the child’s family members and the early interventionist should share with the audiologist their observations of how the child responds to sound. The audiologist sees the child in an unfamiliar and atypical setting and has limited interaction with and knowledge about the child. The family’s and early interventionist’s perspectives contribute to a more comprehensive view of the child’s use of hearing. Second, because of his or her familiarity with the child, the early interventionist can assist the audiologist in testing a child with multiple disabilities in the following ways:

1. Suggesting adaptations for the child’s position, given his or her physical or other needs. For example, a child may be more relaxed and attentive sitting in an infant seat, stroller, or adaptive chair than on the caregiver’s lap. Furthermore, certain positions will allow the caregiver, test assistant, and audiologist to detect the child’s subtle responses.

2. Identifying the child’s idiosyncratic behaviors, such as changes in breathing, subtle movements of the arms or legs, or slight facial expressions.

3. Discussing the child’s response time. Many children who have multiple disabilities need more time to respond than is usually expected by an audiologist. Whereas the normal response time may be 1 to 3 seconds, a child with multiple disabilities may take 10 to 15 seconds to respond.

4. Identifying adaptations to the standard test procedures that the child may need. For example, a child who is blind or severely visually impaired will not respond to a visual reinforcement for responding to sound that is required to condition or teach the child to respond to sound for certain audiological tests, such as visual reinforcement audiometry (discussed in Chapter 7). A tactile, kinesthetic, or vibratory reinforcement such as a tickle, fan, air puff, or vibrating toy may be needed. In addition, a child who is visually impaired

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