This professional evaluates language understanding and speech ability, and is responsible for designing and implementing a concentrated program of communication therapies, with appropriate goals and expectations. The speech-language pathologist continues to follow the child's progress and monitor language development, speech production, overall communication skills, and sets new goals over time. The parents are most essential to the teamwork that will enable the child to achieve full potential. Parents have in-depth knowledge of their child and are most familiar with the world the child is trying to understand. They have shared many of their child's experiences, and are their child's first and most important teachers.
All children are more likely to explore and learn when they feel secure and loved.
Both techniques allow healthcare professionals to determine how well a baby hears and are easy to administer, relatively inexpensive, accurate, and cause no discomfort to the infant. Early diagnosis is of paramount importance. The earlier the hearing loss is diagnosed the better for the child. Research indicates babies without a hearing loss hear while in the womb and newborns are comforted by a mother's familiar voice rather than the voice of a stranger. By the time hearing babies speak their first words, they have been listening to language for 10 to 15 months.