Family-Centered Audiologic Assessment for Infants and Young Children with Hearing Loss

A model for family-centered audiologic assessment is proposed in which comprehensive evaluation is provided from the birth screening through all subsequent follow-up visits for the young child with hearing loss. To ensure a solid foundation for the model, it is imperative that the audiologist-family relationship is established and continued throughout the audiologic assessment process, which is ongoing during the first year of life. The model incorporates families into all phases of the pediatric audiologic assessment, recognizing the needs of the family and the unique contributions the family can make to the audiologic assessment process. It is suggested that adopting a family-centered audiologic assessment model also can reduce many of the stresses experienced by the family during the audiologic diagnostic process.

KEYWORDS

Pediatric audiologic assessment - family-centered services - childhood hearing loss

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