2024 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 17-19, 2024 • Denver, CO
3/18/2024 | 2:25 PM - 2:50 PM | Improving Early Intervention Services through Cross-State Collaboration | Capitol 6
Improving Early Intervention Services through Cross-State Collaboration
With support from the Marion Downs Center in 2020 to build a more robust early intervention system in Wyoming, a group of stakeholders was pulled together to form the Wyoming Early Intervention Initiative (WEII). Colorado has 30+ years of early intervention via the Colorado Home Intervention Program (CHIP) and CO-Hears (Colorado Hearing Resource Coordinators). As WEII started to develop and CHIP started to re-evaluate, the opportunity to collaborate across state lines developed. These collaborations include state-wide trainings for early intervention providers working with infants/toddlers who are deaf/hard of hearing, sharing program materials and resources and brainstorming ideas for additional opportunities. The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing Supplement to the 2007 Position Statement notes the importance of families having access to providers who have professional qualification and knowledge and skills to optimize child development. Goal 3 “promotes reliance on qualified providers, and recommends processes for ensuring families have access to them”. This goal has motivated the collaboration between Wyoming and Colorado. Additionally in the last year, the need for professional networking nationally was identified through personal connections at the 2023 EHDI Conference. Energized by this need, quarterly meetings among coordinators for specialized early intervention programs were initiated. The benefit from this cross-state partnership has revealed the importance of informing other programs of ways to establish these types of collaborations to enrich their early intervention systems.
- Participants will identify 3 ways to establish professional connections with early intervention programs in neighboring states
- Participants will specify 3 cross-state collaboration opportunities
- Participants will be encouraged to measure the effectiveness of cross-state collaboration opportunities
Presentation:
3478265_16273AnnetteLandes.pdf
3478265_16273AshleyRenslow.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
3478265_16273AnnetteLandes.rtf
Presenters/Authors
Annette Landes
(Primary Presenter,Co-Presenter), Wyoming Families for Hands & Voices, annette@wyhandsandvoices.org;
Annette is the Wyoming Early Intervention Initiative (WEII) Plus Coordinator. Her role as coordinator is to support families who have infants and toddlers who are deaf/hard of hearing. Through this support, families are offered resources, technical assistance, and guidance as they begin their journey through early intervention. Through Annette’s experience as a speech/language pathologist and hearing coordinator in Colorado for 20 years, she understands the importance of providing complete and unbiased information to families to support them as they make decisions for their child related to their needs and hearing abilities. In addition, she mentors and guides the early interventionists who provide the specialized services for infants and toddlers who are deaf/hard of hearing. With the implementation of the WEII Plus Program, families in Wyoming have access to a comprehensive curriculum that will support the development of their infant or toddler who is deaf/hard of hearing.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Nancy Pajak
(Co-Presenter), Marion Downs Center, nanpajak@gmail.com;
Nancy Pajak graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1975 with a B.S. In Speech Pathology. She spent two years working as a speech/language therapist in Minnesota public schools before beginning her Master of Science in Audiology studies at Colorado State University. Upon completion of her Masters, Nancy accepted a position with the Colorado West Otolaryngology Practice in Grand Junction Colorado. While Nancy enjoyed the medical setting, her true love was Educational Audiology. She began work at Natrona County School District in Casper WY as the District Audiologist and enjoyed this work until moving to Seattle in 1987. It was in the Pacific Northwest that Nancy found the opportunity to spend half of her time in educational audiology settings and the other half in a medical audiology/otologist environment. Nancy blended diagnostics for all ages of patients, fitting amplification, counseling, and patient care in the medical setting and used her skills in direct intervention and case management for school age children who were Deaf/Hard of Hearing in the educational setting. Nancy worked as the Director of Outreach Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at the Wyoming Department of Education while keeping up her medical skills up at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie. As the importance of early hearing screening came of age, Nancy accepted the opportunity of designing and implementing the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program for the Wyoming Department of Health. She was the Wyoming EHDI Coordinator for 25 years. Nancy is utilizing her knowledge and experience in speech pathology, audiology, program management and child development/education as she serves as the Liaison/Consultant between the Wyoming Early Intervention Initiative (WEII) Program and the Marion Downs Center.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -
Ashley Renslow
(Co-Presenter), Colorado EHDI, Arenslow@csdb.org;
Ashley Renslow is the Early Education Coordinator with Outreach Programs at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. In her role, she coordinates the Colorado Hearing Resource Coordinator (CO-Hear) and Colorado Home Intervention Programs (CHIP),the Colorado Shared Reading Project (CSRP) and the Little Language Learners Toddler Program. She also programmatically oversees the Early Literacy Events. A speech language pathologist by background, she has worked in Deaf residential Schools for 10+ years in varying roles, and has served local families as a CHIP facilitator (0-3 early interventionist). Outside of work, when she's not chasing her kindergartner and toddler, Ashley enjoys being outside, traveling, and lounging with a good book.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Sarah Fitzgerald
(Co-Presenter), Wyoming EHDI Program, sarah.fitzgerald@wyo.gov;
Sarah Fitzgerald has served in various roles for the Wyoming Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program since 2005. Since 2018, she has held the position of Co-Coordinator for Wyoming EHDI. Through her work, Sarah coordinates newborn hearing screening and follow-up throughout the state to ensure that children have hearing screenings completed by one month of age, diagnosis by three months of age, and are entered into early intervention by six months of age. She collaborates frequently with Wyoming Families for Hands & Voices and other statewide entities and stakeholders including work on the Wyoming Early Intervention Initiative (WEII) for Families and Their Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.