• Expose families to the various aspects of hearing loss.
• Facilitate families in learning essential skills for early communication with their child.
• Through play, provide opportunities for a child to experience activities for optimum development.
• Prepare families with information for smooth transition at the age of three.
Each family and child has unique skills and learning preferences. Children with hearing loss can become successful communicators using a language acessible to them. We value a family's right to receive accurate, unbiased information about language options as well as their child's strengths and needs. This information will lead parents to investigate successful strategies, exposing their child to language using methods of choice. Each child's ongoing language development is observed and families develop and adjust strategies to ensure their child has full access to the language of choice in their home.
Since 1975, Utah's Parent Infant Program advisors/consultants have used the SKI*HI Curriculum for families with children with hearing loss. This curriculum provides a guideline for parents and specialists to promote communication, language development and listening skills in children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Professionals in the Parent Infant Program are also committed to the development of early literacy skills.
What are the benefits of Deaf PIP?
Hearing loss in children can be detected in the first hours of life! A child with hearing loss may not be able to hear language spoken in their home. Training in language and listening can begin immediately after the loss is diagnosed. Recent research has shown that children who are use appropriate amplification and take part in early intervention services in the first few years of life, especially before 6 months of age, benefit significantly in the areas of language, auditory development, and speech.
Please DO NOT wait to refer any child if you, a parent or professional has concerns about a child's hearing.
What services are provided?
• Information about hearing loss
• Skill training including modeling, hands-on experience, and feedback
• Ongoing assessment
• Weekly, biweekly, or monthly visits in the home
• Auditory tutoring
• Sign language lessons including Deaf Mentor Program
Who is eligible?
Since hearing loss of any type or degree can impact language development, PIP serves all children from the time the hearing loss is discovered until age three. This includes children with conductive losses (including temporary losses during chronic Otitis Media) and sensorineural losses.
What are staff qualifications?
• Knowledge about hearing loss, infant and early child development, parent-infant relationships, language development, listening development, and sign language.
• Master’s degree in early childhood deaf education or another related field.
• An endorsement to teach hearing impaired children (newborn to age 3).
• An early intervention credential
Who should I contact?
The Parent Infant Program can be reached by calling:
State wide: 1-800-990-9328
Ogden area: 801-629-4743
Salt Lake area: 801-464-2000
Referrals can also be made through you local Early Intervention Program or by calling Baby Watch 1-800-961-4226.
USDB - PIP Department, 742 Harrison Blvd. Ogden, UT 84404
801-629-4743
Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.