When you have a child with hearing loss (or any disability), you are instantly thrown into the deep end of new jargon, appointments, professionals, and more. When a therapy or early intervention provider is assigned to your family, how do you know if who you’re getting is any good? They’re supposed to be the expert in this, so how are parents who are new to this whole world supposed to know if they and their child are getting what they deserve?
Of course, there are many, many ways to be a great speech-language pathologist/audiologist/teacher of the deaf/early interventionist/etc. Different professionals will have different backgrounds, personalities, and therapy styles, and that’s great. This checklist is meant to be the bare-bones minimum of quality indicators that define an evidence-based, family-centered practice. Below, I’ve shared just a few very basic questions that you can ask yourself to determine whether or not the services you’re receiving are of high quality. (Here’s a hint: the answer to every question should be YES!)