Questions You May Want to Ask Your Child’s Early Interventionist Name of Early Interventionist: ______________________________________________________ Phone/Contact Information: ________________________________________________________ Appointment Date: __________________________________________________ Next Appointment Date: ______________________________________________ Early intervention services support families to help their children reach their full potential. These services are offered through public or private agencies. Your child may receive services at your home, a clinic, a daycare center, a hospital, or the local health department. States decide which children can receive services, but they follow rules under a federal law called “Part C” of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA). These services might be very helpful to your child. Each state has an agency that serves infants and toddlers with hearing loss or other special needs. Once your child has been diagnosed with hearing loss, an early interventionist or someone with the state agency should call you. If you do not receive a call, or would like to know more about intervention services in your state, you can call the state office and ask to speak with the agency that serves children with special needs. The state number can be found in the blue colored pages of your local phone directory, under “State Government.” It is important that children with hearing loss begin early intervention services as soon as possible. The goal for every child with hearing loss identified at birth is to start early intervention no later than 6 months of age or within 3 months of diagnosis. This will help the child develop communication and language skills that will last a lifetime. Questions about my/our child’s early intervention services: 1. What is early intervention? What can you do for my child? What services do you provide? 2. Why is it so important for my child to start intervention this early? 3. How much will early intervention services cost? 4. How can my child learn to communicate? Can you tell me about sign language? Can you tell me about the different ways my child can learn to talk? 5. How are hearing aids and cochlear implants different? 6. How will I know if my child should get hearing aids or a cochlear implant*? 7. Does your program have staff trained to work with very young infants and toddlers with hearing loss, for all communication methods? 8. Will you send progress reports for our child to his or her doctor and the state (or territorial) EHDI program? 9. How much time will we spend in early intervention activities? 10. Where will the intervention activities be provided? 11. Where can I learn more about children with hearing loss? How can I meet other families who have young children with hearing loss? 12. What will happen when my child is too old for your program? To learn more about Early Hearing Detection and Intervention, go to http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/index.html. * This question can also be asked of your audiologist, ear nose and throat doctor (ENT), or other medical professionals.