Two Ohio Programs: Providing Support to Families

1. Two Ohio Programs: Providing Support to Families Regional Infant Hearing Program Sandi Domoracki, M.A., CCC/A, Project Director (330) 633-2055 sdomorac@kent.edu Kelli Halter, M.S., Project Director (216) 231-8787 ext. 265 khalter@chsc.org Family Child Learning Center Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center

2. Faculty Disclosure Information In the past 12 months, I have not had a significant financial interest or other relationship with the manufacturer(s) of the product(s) or provider(s) of the service(s) that will be discussed in my presentation. This presentation will (not) include discussion of pharmaceuticals or devices that have not been approved by the FDA you will be discussing unapproved or “off-label” uses of pharmaceuticals or devices.

3. RIHP is funded by the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Bureau of Early Intervention Services, through a federal grant from the US Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

4. What? The purpose: 1) To provide the follow along and tracking of infants who do not pass their newborn hearing screenings. 2) To provide family-centered, habilitative services for infants and toddlers (0-3) with hearing loss or deafness at not cost to families.

5. The programs offers: • Home-based family support • Unbiased parent education on communication options • Assistance with follow-up audiological appointments and connections to community resources

6. The program also offers: • Guidance in communication and language development • Opportunities to interact with the Deaf community • Parent to parent support • Planning for transition to preschool

7. What Does Providing Family Support Look Like?

8. Home-based Support

9. Coaching – Why? Lee Ann Jung

10. Adults as Learners • Approximately 50% is retained. (Shapiro et al, 1992) • 40-80% may be forgotten immediately. (Kessels, 2003) • Of the 50% recalled, approximately half is remembered wrong (Anderson et al, Kessels, 2003)( Adapted from Margolis, 2004)

11. “People don’t argue with their own data.” Relate new info to what they already know or to an experience. “Learning has not taken place until behavior has changed.” (Pike, 1994)

12. Levels of Competence • “Unconscious Incompetence • Conscious Incompetence • Conscious Competence • Unconscious Competence • Conscious Unconscious Competence” I can do this unconsciously Levels of Competence (Robert W. Pike. Creative Training Techniques Handbook, 2nd edition, 1994, pg6)

13. Do List: Ideas for home-based support • Do send an introduction letter to child’s doctor, audiologist, and other key people on child’s team. • Do help family organize test results, business cards, & handouts you give them by providing them with a notebook. Include a section for communication and sharing among child’s team members. • Do include other individuals (parents, college students) with similar experiences to share during home visits. • Do offer a family contact sheet. Remember details. • Do allow for silence, don’t feel compelled to fill the gaps.

14. . • Do initiate a contact (visit or phone call) between a newly identified family and a seasoned family. • Do use videos or written materials. • Do provide access to mentor services (deaf, oral parent). • Do establish a lending library of materials and texts for families (Make sure every family has a copy of the library material). • Do establish a chatroom/list serve for families to post ideas and questions. • Do provide a family support corner on your website (include parent-generated notations, poetry, ideas, and pictures).

15. Group-based Support

16. Purpose of Support Groups • Emotional support from others who have “been there” or “who are there now” • A way to share information • A safe place to brainstorm and express feelings • A sounding board for choices being made • A place to validate feelings • A place to learn new ways to handle situations • A place to discover similar challenges experienced by other parents SKI*HI

17. Group-based support doesn’t have to look like this

18. Group-based support can look like this

22. Sandi & Kelli’s Top Ten List or What We Have Learned Along the Way: • Do circulate invitations or fliers. • Do limit the use of the word “support” in titling the gathering. • Do use a variety of forms and functions for groups. • Do consider facilitators who will assist in the discussion and stay after to mingle. • Do allow for a flexible agenda, trust the families to take the agenda where they need it to go. • Do encourage extended family members to attend.

23. Do monitor excessive expressions of negativity, judgment and participants who may dominate majority of discussions. Take note of these for later individual discussions. • Do remember not all things will work with all people. A group can be 2 or it can be 100 participants. • Do empower families to choose topics, settings, speakers, times, etc • Do consider ease of access to location and comfort of setting. Example: Arrange small group meetings at park, playground or fast food restaurant. Arrange large group meetings at non-clinical settings. • When you get it all figured out, it all changes.

24. Bibliography • Dunst, Carl, Carol Trivette, and Angela Deal. Enabling & Empowering Families • Principles & Guidelines for Practice. Cambridge: Brookline Books, Inc., 1988. • Edwards, Carolyn. "Reflections on Counseling: Families and Hearing Loss." • Loud & Clear Newsletter - Advanced Bionics 2003, 2 ed. • Hanft, Barbara E., Dathan D. Rush, and M'lisa L. Sheldon. Coaching Families and • Colleagues in Early Childhood. Baltimore: Paul H Brookes Co., 2004. • Jerger, J: Foreword: Effective Counseling in Audiology. 1994 Prentice-Hall; VII. • Margolis, B: Informational Counseling in Health Professionals: What do Patients • Remember? January 2004; www.audiologyincorporated.com • McWilliam, P.J., and Donald B. Bailey, Jr. Work Together with Children & Families • Case Studies in Early Intervention. Baltimore: Paul H Brookes Co., 1993. • McWilliam, P.J., Pamela J. Winton, and Elizabeth R. Crais. Practical Strategies for • Family-Centered Intervention. San Diego: Singular Group, Inc., 1996. • Watkins, Sue, and Dorothy Johnson Taylor. SKI-HI Cirriculum. • Watkins, Sue. SKI-HI Cirriculum - The Basics and Getting Started; Special Needs. • Vol. 1. North Logan: HOPE, Inc., 2004. • Yanz, Jerry L., Seneca Open Ear BTE. Behavioral Style Analysis, 15 Sept. 2005, • MicroTech Sound Science and Services.