Teleintervention for infants and young children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing

Abstract

Advancements in videoconferencing equipment and Internet-based tools for sharing information have resulted in widespread use of tele-medicine for providing health care to people who live in remote areas. Given the limited supply of people trained to provide early-intervention services to infants and young children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and the fact that many families who need such services live significant distances from each other and from metropolitan areas, such "teleintervention" strategies hold promise for providing early-intervention services to children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Unfortunately, little is known about the cost-effectiveness of such teleintervention services. In this article we outline the rationale for using teleintervention services for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, describe a teleintervention program that has been serving relatively large numbers of children in Australia since 2002, and summarize what we know about the cost-effectiveness of such an approach. We conclude by summarizing the type of research needed to decide whether teleintervention should be used more frequently with children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and the potential relevance of the teleintervention approach for the development of intervention systems in the United States. Copyright © 2010 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.