Marilyn Sass-Lehrer, Donna Mertens, and Kathryn Meadow-Orlans, Education

Universal newborn hearing screening programs have been established in a growing number of states resulting in a need for new and expanded early intervention services for children with hearing loss and their families. Families have no guarantee that these new or expanded programs or the professionals understand their concerns or are able to provide the services they desire. Data collected form a national survey and telephone interviews with families describe their experiences surrounding the suspicion and identification of their child's hearing loss and their concerns related to early intervention services. However, data available from specific subgroups of families who have different backgrounds or developmental priorities and concerns have not yet been analyzed. These groups include: 1) families with hard of hearing children; 2) families who are non-white; 3) families in which parents are deaf or hard of hearing; 4) families who have elected cochlear implant surgery; and 5) families with children who have multiple disabilities. The purpose of the proposed project is to expand the quantitative and qualitative analyses from existing survey and telephone interview data to address the specific situations of these subgroups. Results of these analyses will be published in a book describing the early experiences of families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing.