Parent Links

The mission of the Parentlinks (Hope, Dream, Achieve) program is to empower parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing infants and toddlers by providing them with comprehensive information and awareness through mentoring, networking, and resources, and by honoring the family’s relationship with their child and their choices in language and communication opportunities.

Parent Links connects parents of deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) kids to other parents of DHH kids. Parent Links in California.

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• Universal Newborn Hearing Screenings
• Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program
• California Hands & Voices

Working in association with the Southern California Hearing Coordination Center (SCHCC) and South-Eastern California Hearing Coordination Center (SECHCC) covering the following counties: San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Kern, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial

The purpose of Parentlinks (Hope, Dream, Achieve) is to provide emotional and social support to parents who have infants and toddlers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and to provide unbiased and comprehensive understanding of communication options and the services that can be provided for their child and their family.

The Parentlinks (Hope, Dream, Achieve) program is based on the following beliefs:

• That every child should be given every opportunity to be all he or she can be.
• That parents raising infants and toddlers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing aspire to become knowledgeable about hearing loss, to advocate for the rights of their children, and to make informed decisions.
• That connecting these parents to other parents who have been through the same experience is critical for them to achieve success

The Parentlinks (Hope, Dream, Achieve) program values unbiased acceptance of what families choose for services and communication options.

Using funding from a federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention grant, the California Department of Education will provide funding to three existing Parent Training and Information Centers or Family Resource Centers to fund a parent mentor to provide the following support to parents of infants and toddlers identified through the California Newborn Hearing Screening Program (NHSP). Referral to Family Resource Centers is a requirement of the California Early Intervention Act:

Contact families identified by the NHSP (one time) that fail to show for outpatient hearing screen appointments, to do the following:

• Find out and document (for program evaluation and quality improvement purposes) why the family failed to show for the appointment.
• Help the family solve issues that prevented them from keeping the appointment (e.g., by providing the parents with names of audiology providers close to their home).
• Stress the importance of making and keeping a new appointment.
• Answer any questions the family may have

Contact families identified by the NHSP (one time) when an infant is referred for diagnostic hearing evaluation, to do the following

• Talk with the family about what to expect at the diagnostic appointment.
• Talk about the importance of following through with the appointment.
• Talk about the authorization process for private insurance and/or California Children’s Services (CCS) for the diagnostic evaluation.
• Answer any questions the family may have.
• Give the parents the Parent Mentor’s name and phone number, so that the parents may call the Parent Mentor if they have questions or concerns.

Contact families of infants identified with hearing loss through the NHSP, and provide six to ten hours of services, which will include the following:

• Initiation of dialogue with the family about their needs.
• Provision of information about hearing loss.
• Provision of methodology respectful information about communication options.
• Demonstration of how to access information about options to start family on path to own research.
• Referral to Early Start, if the family is not already connected.
• Provision of information about Early Start and what kinds of services the family can expect to receive.
• Provision of information about Family Resource Centers (FRCs) and information about what to expect from the FRC.
• Connection to the local FRC.
• Connection with a local trained Key Parent and with California Hands & Voices for ongoing support.