Family-centered early intervention uses research and evidence-based practices to improve outcomes for young children by focusing on supporting their families. These practices give families support that is tailored to their needs and meets them where they are in their journey of raising their children. The supports will look different depending on the unique needs of each child and family.
In 2013, an international panel created ten guiding principles for family-centered early intervention for families raising a child who is deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). Since then, new research and knowledge from the field encouraged an international team to revisit, revise, and improve these principles. In February 2024, the panel published the updated principles in a special edition of the Journal of Deaf Studes and Deaf Education, which is free to read and download.
The journal volume includes and defines five guiding values for implementing family-centered early intervention for children who are DHH. These guiding values are:
- Being family-centered.
- Responding to diversity.
- Involving invested parties, especially families and individuals who are DHH.
- Fostering holistic child development.
- Ensuring fundamental human rights.
The ten updated guiding principles, developed with the influence of the values above, are grouped into three categories:
- The foundation principles highlight the importance of starting intervention early after a child is identified and building strong relationships between the provider and the family.
- The support principles focus on the family’s needs (such as basic needs and making connections) and supporting the child’s well-being (including development and social-emotional growth). The support principles also focus on developing language and communication and helping families gain the knowledge they need to make informed, confident decisions.
- The structure principles focus on having trained interventionists who can provide DHH-specific supports and having a collaborative team working together toward the family’s goals. They also include the need for comprehensive assessments that guide the educational team (including the family) in setting goals, as well as developing systems to track outcomes of DHH programs, services, and systems.
The journal articles break down each guiding principle and explain how early intervention teams can work toward these goals. They outline provider actions, potential family activities and outcomes, and examples of program and system processes that support a family-centered approach. This breakdown can help providers and educational teams have reflective discussions. This resource is valuable for supporting future goal setting for service improvement and prioritizing the needs of families and the outcomes for children who are DHH.
Get a visual that includes the ten principles, as well as a brief summary of key topics within each principle: Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing Principles