Parent participation in early intervention/early childhood hearing impairment program

It is a well-known fact that the parents play a key role in the early intervention program for their deaf and hard of hearing children.

This study aims to focus on issues related to the need for a collaborative, supportive and parent centred early intervention programs and (re)habilitation process for the children with hearing aids or cochlear implants for sustainable health. This study was a retrospective case control study.

Sixty parents (30 parent educated and 30 non- parent educated) were completed a Profile Questionnaire and a Family Awareness and Knowledge Questionnaire. The first questionnaire was designed to obtain the information related with the demographics of the family and their deaf or hard of hearing children. The latter was used to evaluate the knowledge of parents about their hearing handicapped children. All statistical analyses were performed with IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 22.0 software (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp).

The parent awareness and knowledge of children with cochlear implants differed from those of control group who do not receive any family counselling, but not in clinically significant ways.

Some of the variability in cochlear implantation outcomes that have protracted periods of development is related to family environment. Because the family environment can be modified and enhanced by therapy or counselling, these preliminary findings hold promise for future work in helping families for sustainability in health.