2027 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 22-24, 2027 • Bellevue, WA
3/17/2026 | 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM | Supporting Language Access During Routines | City Terrace 12
Supporting Language Access During Routines
Very young children learn best from their families and caregivers in activities they do every day in their natural environment. Rather than providing a limited number of hours per week of direct services to children with disabilities, early intervention providers need to support caregiver capacity to provide rich learning environments. A strategy to achieve this goal is family centered routine based intervention (RBI). Routine based intervention centers the activities the family is already doing as the contexts for learning.
A special consideration for DHH children is ensuring access to language during routines. For spoken language, this means making sure speech sounds are accessible and meaningful emphasizing clear auditory input and optimal listening environments. For visual language, this means making sure the sign language input is accessible and meaningful emphasizing optimal visual learning environments. Access to clear and meaningful visual and auditory input is also important for children learning Cued Speech. Early Intervention providers need to be equipped with strategies to support families in providing language access throughout the day and during the routine based activities families are using to specifically support language learning with their DHH children. This session will review principles of family based routine based intervention and identify the importance of language access within that framework. Strategies will be presented that may be shared with families using a parent coaching approach. Strategies will be included for both spoken and visual language development and how families may use a combination to achieve their goals in different routines.
- Describe family-centered routine based intervention
- Describe language access for DHH children
- Apply strategies to support families in providing language access within routine based interactions
Presentation:
View Presentation File
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
James McCann
(Primary Presenter), Gallaudet University, james.mccann@gallaudet.edu;
James McCann, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, is a faculty member at Gallaudet University in the SLP program. His teaching and research areas are language acquisition in D/HH children, identifying evidence-based practices to support D/HH children and their families, and working with D/HH children with complex communication needs which may include AAC. Prior to coming to Gallaudet, he worked as an SLP in infant-toddler, early childhood, elementary, and HS D/HH programs.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
• Receives Salary,Grants for Employment from Gallaudet University.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Financial relationship with Gallaudet University
.
Nature: I am a full-time salaried faculty member at Gallaudet University. I also receive course release fund and additional pay through the Beacon Center Grant from HRSA. .
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.