During our ECHO Initiative webinars, many participants pose questions that we are able to respond to directly.  We know, however, that with up to several hundred individuals in attendance at each one, there isn't nearly enough time for everyone to get their questions answered. We also know that some of the hearing screening implementation challenges that programs face require in-depth exploration and discussion.

The ECHO Initiative Team would like to make all early care and education program staff aware that in addition to our Webinar and Web Class offerings, we also provide free telephone technical assistance on hearing screening issues small and large. Although this is available at any time throughout the year, during the months of June and July we'd like to prioritize the offering for more programs to schedule and receive personalized, one-on-one technical assistance contact from us to address specific needs. Here are examples of just a few of the questions that we've been able to discuss with programs during previous calls:

• How do I get started with an Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) hearing screening program? 

• How do I go about evaluating and selecting equipment that will work well for lay screeners?  How many pieces of equipment does my program need to buy?

• How many individuals need to be trained to do OAE screening? What are the options for getting my staff trained ?

• How can we implement OAE screening in a home-based program? 

• How should we start doing OAE hearing screening in program that serves many children in different locations?

• Is it better to have someone else do the hearing screening or should we do it ourselves?

Whether your questions are similar to or different from these, we'd like to share what we know and assist you in the ways that we can. There is no cost for accessing this service--simply use this link to contact us, providing your name, contact information, a general idea of what you'd like to discuss, and we'll be in touch to set up a time for a call.