A letter to early interventionists from some “veteran” parents…

We are now confident, competent parents who are strong advocates for our children and understand our children’s hearing losses and individual needs. We’d like to share with you why we feel this is true. We didn’t know it at the time, but can see clearly now that it all started with our early intervention experience…

Our thoughts and feelings were respected from day one, which helped to build trusting relationships with interventionists.

Our entire family (including siblings!!) was welcome and involved as part of our support team.

We were taught early on that our input was valuable during assessments, Individual Family Service Planning, and sessions, making us feel very much a part of the team and giving us greater insights into our child’s and family’s needs.

Our interventionists recognized that we knew our child best, and that we were the ones spending time with our child – they taught us how to observe and teach our child, knowing that we have the greatest impact on our child’s communication, listening, and language development.

Some of us whose mother tongue is not English appreciated our interventionists’ patience and extra efforts to help us navigate through a maze of information and access timely services.

The interventionists considered our individual family’s work schedules, routines, and home visit preferences.

Our interventionists recognized that sometimes the session planned was not what we needed on that particular day and was willing to be flexible to meet our needs. For example: we needed to discuss our recent visit to the Adiologist or a difficult situation where someone approached us in the grocery store and went on and on about how sad it was that we had a child who couldn’t hear.

The interventionists recognized that we needed to develop confidence as parents (especially as first time parents of a new baby). They didn’t take over, but helped us to develop the skills we needed, gently reminding us of the importance of starting intervention as early as possible.

We were able to get support and learn from other parents of children with hearing loss because we were given the opportunity to meet and talk with other families with children with hearing loss.

We had the opportunity to meet adults who are deaf and hard of hearing, which helped us to see that our children could grow to be happy, successful individuals.

We were empowered by the information provided to us through our early intervention years. A parent of a deaf child once said, "When one does not understand or have the information, one is fearful. However when the information is given clearly and at the right time, one is no longer fearful and is empowered". She was so right!

We were presented with options regarding modality and communication approaches and supported through the decision process by our interventionist.

We were also told that if a particular method was not working for our family that we would have the option to try something else. One parent told us: "One year I considered changing programs because I felt that possibly the peer groupings of another program might better support his needs. The program our family was involved with encouraged me to make whatever decision I needed to for my family and I knew that they would support whatever decision I made because they really believed that what I chose would be the right decision for my family." This is how a parent should feel.

We were always made to feel that we, as parents, had much to offer and that they (the interventionists) had much to learn from us.

So you see, we transitioned into the school system feeling empowered and with a great understanding of the impact a strong team has on a child. We go into school IEP (Individual Education Planning) meetings confident, knowing that we bring important information and recommendations to the table because we have been an integral part of the Individual Family Service Planning process.

This is the gift that you give to parents.