Abstract
Newborn hearing screening has increased the number of families enrolled in early intervention
during a sensitive period of communication development. The primary role of the speech-language
pathologist in early intervention is to facilitate natural parent-infant interactions
and support parents' feelings of confidence in communicating with their child. Feelings
of self-efficacy can be increased when parents understand how hearing loss impacts
their child's communication development, understand how to monitor hearing technology
and hearing status, and receive consistent feedback related to their child's progress.
This article reviews the evidence behind benefits of early parent-child interactions
and outlines strategies and resources for speech-language pathologists to use in supporting
communication development with infants and toddlers with hearing loss.
Keywords
Infants - toddlers - hearing loss - language development