Audiological profile of deaf and hard-of-hearing children under six years old in the “HI HOPES cohort” in South Africa (2006–2011)

Early Childhood Development Is Not Enough: In Defense of Children with Developmental Delays and Disabilities and Their Right to Family-Centered Early Childhood Intervention (In the Global South)

“…Whilst many professionals remain integral to a child's long-term developmental journey-for example, a child with cerebral palsy may continually require the expertise of a physiotherapist and nutritionist, as well as regular visits to primary medical and healthcare professionals such as their physician and orthopedic surgeon-Early Childhood Interventionists should strive to empower families toward independence. This comprehensive ECI support entails providing families with the information, knowledge, and skills necessary to maximize their unique child's optimal development-cognitively, linguistically, physically, and socio-emotionally-whilst honoring and respecting each family's diverse culture, needs, and aspirations [37,43,44].…”

“…Although the program being shared supports families and their deaf and hard-of-hearing children, the guiding principles of Fc-ECI remain constant within the spectrum of childhood disability and family support. The foundational building blocks and principles of Fc-ECI programs are as follows: (i) Early and continuous, (ii) Individualized, (iii) Comprehensive and focused on holistic development, (iv) Intensive and coordinated, (v) Transdisciplinary/interdisciplinary and team-based, (vi) Evidence-informed and outcomes-driven, (viii) Unbiased and family-led partnerships, (ix) Home-based and focused on daily life and natural routines, and (x) Accountable and quality assured [38,43,51,53,61,62].…”

“…The continuous and consistent home-visits focused on holistic development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children within the comfort of daily life and routines, as well as prioritizing the importance of individualized support. Over the extensive period of HI HOPES support, the model included the fundamental principle of quality assurance and accountability through the mentoring of early interventionists and the consistent monitoring of the child's developmental progress [43,[51][52][53]62].…”

“…The aim was that each child developed optimally in all domains of child development, with a core focus on age-appropriate expressive and receptive language and communication skills, within the typically bilingual or multilingual family contexts Monitoring and Evaluation became a central part of the HI HOPES program from the start, as we wanted to ensure (i) our families and children received the highest quality of appropriate and effective intervention as possible, (ii) the interventionists received the necessary guidance and mentoring, and (iii) progress and outcomes were recorded and monitored for both administrative and quality assurance reasons. In its 18th year of existence, the HI HOPES data has become the largest longitudinal dataset on disability in Africa [43,51,52,65]. In addition to the home interventionist (HI), all HI HOPES families were invited to join the Deaf Mentor (DM) program, which was developed to introduce families to deaf adults, whatever the language or amplification choices, as role models of success and the achievements that deaf people in South Africa can achieve.…”