Needs Assessment Report

What Do Parents with D/HH Children Say They Need & Want?

By Vicki Hunting, H&V Headquarters

H&V Communicator – Fall 2018

Hands & Voices (H&V) recently completed a comprehensive national needs assessment to guide its work on meeting the objectives of the Family Leadership in Language and Learning (FL3) program, a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) that began in 2017. The goal of the FL3 is to ensure that state/territory Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) systems incorporate certain elements that support the families, parents, and caregivers of deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) infants and children identified through newborn hearing screening in optimizing language, literacy, and social and emotional development.

The needs assessment was designed to take an in-depth look at the needs of families with children who are D/HH, family-based support organizations, and EHDI Programs in their ability to work in partnership to improve the EHDI service system. H&V contracted with the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM) at Utah State University to conduct the needs assessment.

Results showed that families need to be offered comprehensive information about services and support at different points in their child’s life; coordinated, trusted resources; contact with and support from other parents who share their lived experience; increased support for underserved families; and access to D/HH adults. The EHDI Coordinator results revealed that they need a clear delineation of responsibilities for their contracted Family Based Organization (FBO); strategies to establish a collaborative partnership with their FBO; ways to work with FBOs and parents to address barriers to involvement and leadership; and tools to provide consistent, accurate information and resources for families. FBOs report they need training in working with families with diverse communication choices; familiarity with D/HH resources; tools to train parents to be involved in all levels of the EHDI system; earlier access to newly identified families; better ability to offer families a variety of activities in a variety of formats; strategies for engaging families from diverse or underserved populations; a better understanding of the EHDI system; and clear expectations and deliverables from their EHDI Program.

Information learned from this needs assessment will be used by the FL3 to build a portfolio of trainings, educational materials, resources, etc., to support family partnership, engagement, and leadership within the EHDI system; and to inform and shape support, family education, and mentorship activities. The needs assessment results provide insight from three target populations; parents with children who are D/HH age 0-6, family-based support organizations, and EHDI Coordinators).

Access the full report here: https://www.handsandvoices.org/fl3/resources/data.html.  ~