Overview

Family-Centered Care (FCC) has long been promoted as best practice in the provision of hearing healthcare services for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and their families.

Although there is some variation in the definition of FCC among researchers and clinicians, there is consensus in the field of early intervention for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing that the following 10 best practice principles should be applied:

1. Early, timely, equitable access to services
2. Family-provider partnerships
3. Informed choice and decision making
4. Family, social, and emotional support
5. Family-infant interaction
6. Use of assistive technologies and supporting means of communication
7. Qualified providers
8. Collaborative teamwork
9. Progress monitoring and
10. Program monitoring
     

In 2017, Phonak convened an international  expert panel  to provide recommendations for Pediatric Family-Centered Care (FCC). Today we know that earlier hearing aid provision and consistent hearing aids use, leads to better early language outcomes. At the same time, we know there will be challenges in the journey for families, and by applying a  family-centered approach our goal is to develop tools needed to open the conversation between audiologists and families.