Year 2000 Position Statement: Principles and Guidelines for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Programs.

The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) endorses early detection of, and intervention for infants with hearing loss (early hearing detection and intervention, [EHDI]) through integrated, interdisciplinary state and national systems of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS), evaluation, and family-centered intervention. The goal of EHDI is to maximize linguistic and communicative competence and literacy development for children who are hard of hearing or deaf. Without appropriate opportunities to learn language, children who are hard of hearing or deaf will fall behind their hearing peers in language, cognition, and social-emotional development. Such delays may result in lower educational and employment levels in adulthood (Gallaudet University Center for Assessment and Demographic Study, 1998). Thus, all infants' hearing should be screened using objective, physiologic measures to identify those with congenital or neonatal onset hearing loss. Audiologic evaluation and medical evaluations should be in progress before 3 months of age. Infants with confirmed hearing loss should receive intervention before 6 months of age from health care and education professionals with expertise in hearing loss and deafness in infants and young children. Regardless of prior hearing screening outcomes, all infants who demonstrate risk indicators for delayed onset or progressive hearing loss should receive ongoing audiologic and medical monitoring for 3 years and at appropriate intervals thereafter to ensure prompt identification and intervention (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 1997). EHDI systems should guarantee seamless transitions for infants and their families through this process.

Appropriate early intervention programs are family-centered, interdisciplinary, culturally competent, and build on informed choice for families (Baker-Hawkins and Easterbrooks, 1994). To achieve informed decision-making, families should have access to professional, educational, and consumer organizations; and they should have opportunities to interact with adults and children who are hard of hearing and deaf (Ogden, 1996; Thompson, 1994). Families should have access to general information on …