Basic principles of early intervention for children with hearing loss

Hearing loss is a common birth problem that can affect a baby’s ability to develop speech, language and social skills in lack of comprehensive early intervention. Early intervention occurring within the first 6 months has higher effectiveness for hearing impaired children. The introduction of universal newborn hearing screening programs allowed to identify hearing loss in the first months of life. That determines the need of immediate comprehensive early intervention for children identified with hearing loss. The main approaches of such intervention have been described in detail in the literature. However there are not well-developed, evidence-based, well-documented recommendations for family-centred early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Similar problems are noted in many countries, that is why in 2012, within the framework of an international conference, specialists and parents of deaf and hard of hearing children developed a document (international consensus statement). The experts arrived at consensus on 10 principles guiding family-centred early intervention. These principles are presented in the article as well as a brief description of their implementation in various countries. The consensus statement has become an important document which is intended to provide a framework for professionals over the world. Knowledge of these principles allows specialists to apply evidence-based approaches working with children who are deaf of hard of hearing.