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ABSTRACT INFORMATION
Title: 'Changing Systems: Home Visits to tVISITS' Track: 4 - Early Intervention Keyword(s): Telepractice, Family-Centered Practice, Early Intervention Learning Objectives: Participants will identify benefits of adding a telepractice component to early intervention service delivery. Participants will be able to define family-centered practice and components of telepractice that promote family-centered practice. Participants will be able to describe potential impacts of telepractice on professional practice and system change . Abstract: The population of identified infants and toddlers has expanded over the last decade as a result of newborn screening, but access to professionals with expertise in hearing loss and early intervention (EI) continues to be a national challenge. Not only is there a shortage of specialty providers able to reach EI families in their natural environments, but access to centers of expertise is limited in both urban and rural communities by distance, traffic and transportation issues, parent work schedules, appointment overload, medical issues and other family stressors. Telepractice is emerging as means of addressing the need by providing efficient access to EI services in the child’s natural environment, but there has been little systematic evaluation of the impact of this approach on children, families and EI practice In response, two large non-profit organizations serving children with hearing loss in New England have collaborated on the tVISIT (telepractice Virtual Intervention Services for Infants and Toddlers) Project to pilot and evaluate the use of telepractice with this population and the potential for system change. tVISIT is a hybrid model in which up to 80 families in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut receive both face-to-face and telepractice services. The program was designed in consultation with external evaluators to examine factors that may differ when moving from home-visit to telepractice venues. Factors examined include attendance, participation, data collection, technology challenges, and time allocation, as well as information about parent and professional satisfaction, parent effectiveness, child performance, and the effects of telepractice on professional practices. Preliminary findings will be presented on: implementing a telepractice program; anticipated and unanticipated risks in moving from a face-to-face to telepractice service delivery model; parent participation and satisfaction; selecting evaluation tools to measure program effectiveness, and the effects of telepractice on providing family-centered practice. Presentation: This presentation has not yet been uploaded or the speaker has opted not to make the presentation available online. Handouts: Handout is not Available
PRESENTER(S) / AUTHOR(S) INFORMATION
Marian Hartblay - Co-Presenter Clarke Schools for Hearing & Speech      Credentials: M.A.T., M.E.D., LSLS Cert. AVEd       Marian Hartblay, M.A.T., M.E.D., LSLS Cert. AVEd is the Director of Early Childhood Services at the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, Northampton, Massachusetts. For more than 20 years, she has worked directly with children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families and collaborated with early intervention agencies. She has recently expanded her practice to include tele-intervention. She has presented nationally on topics in early intervention and building parent partnerships. She lectured in the Master’s Program in Education of the Deaf (M.E.D.) at Smith College and supervised graduate students in family-centered early intervention practicum.       ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist. Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist. Janice Gatty - POC,Co-Presenter Clarke Schools for Hearing & Speech      Credentials: Ed.M, M.E.D., Ed.D      Other Affiliations: Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech Smith College, Northampton, MA       Janice Gatty, Ed.M., M.E.D., Ed.D., has been working with families who have deaf and hard-of-hearing children at the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech since 1974 . Currently she is the Director of Services for Children and Families and Co-Director of the tVISIT (tele-intervention) Project. Dr. Gatty has been on the faculty at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts since 1977. There, she teaches courses in human development and counseling in the Department of Education and Child Study, and, courses in early development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and family-centered intervention in the Graduate School of Education. The Deaf Child in a Hearing Family: Nurturing Development, co-authored with Arthur Boothroyd.       ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist. Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist. Barbara Hecht - Co-Presenter The Clarke Schools for Hearing & Speech      Credentials: Ph.D.      Other Affiliations: OPTION Schools       Barbara F. Hecht, Ph.D., is Director of the Boston area campus of Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech and Co-Director of the tVISIT (tele-intervention) Project. She received her Bachelor's degree in Linguistics and Psychology from Harvard University and her doctorate in Linguistics and Child Language Development from Stanford University. She has worked with families of young children with hearing loss and has trained parents, teachers, pediatricians and other professionals in the field for more than 20 years. Dr. Hecht is currently President of OPTION Schools Inc. and is a regular presenter at national and international conferences on early detection and intervention, tele-services and family-centered practice. She has served in leadership roles for professional organizations and on state and national advisory committees on early intervention for children with hearing loss.       ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist. Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist. Elizabeth Cole - Co-Presenter CREC Soundbridge      Credentials: Ed.D., CCC-A, LSLS Cert. AVT       Elizabeth Cole is the Director of Soundbridge, a statewide public school program in Connecticut. Soundbridge which provides a wide variety of audiological and instructional services to approximately 600 children (birth through secondary school) who are learning spoken language through listening. Prior to coming to Connecticut in 1996, Dr. Cole was a professor at McGill University in Montreal for 16 years. Most of her published articles, chapters, and books have been focused on how to help parents foster listening and spoken language development in young children with hearing loss. Her most recent book (2011), Children with Hearing Loss: Developing Listening and Talking, co-authored with Carol Flexer, has become a standard text for professional development of teachers who are seeking certification as Listening and Spoken Language Specialists through the A.G. Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.       ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist. Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.