SUPPORT SERVICES FOR PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN WHO ARE DEAF OR HARD-OF-HEARING - A NATIONAL SURVEY

In the spring and summer of 1996, 404 parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and were born in 1989 or 1990 completed questionna ires about early services received and the current status of their chi ldren's development. The children were enrolled in 137 different progr ams in 39 states; about one quarter of the programs participating in G allaudet's Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children and Yout h. Children who are deaf comprised 46% of the group for whom responses were provided; those who are hard of hearing comprised 54%. Hearing l oss was confirmed at the mean age of 14.5 months for the deaf group, a nd at the mean age of 28.6 months for the hard of hearing group. Addit ional conditions place 32% at risk for educational or developmental di fficulties One or both parents are deaf in 13% of responding families. Almost 40% of mothers have some training beyond high school; one thir d of the children came from non-White or mixed-race backgrounds. (Thes e characteristics of children and families are used in analyzing other data collected from responding parents). Communication approaches use d in children's initial programs include speech alone (24%), sign + sp eech (66%) sign alone (5%), cues (3%), and sign + cues (3%). Parents g ave highly favorable evaluations to intervention programs, and placed teachers at the top of a ''sources of help'' list. Parents from minori ty groups and those with no college training reported that their child ren showed more behavior problems and less language progress, and gave more negative responses to questions regarding the impact of deafness on their families. This suggests that program personnel may need to i ncrease their intervention efforts for these groups of special educati on consumers.