title: Measuring Costs and Outcomes of Tele-Intervention When Serving Families of Children who are Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Optimal outcomes for children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing (DHH) depend on access to high quality, specialized early intervention services. Tele-intervention (TI), the delivery of early intervention services via telehealth technology, has the potential to meet this need in a cost-effective manner.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-seven families of infants and toddlers with varying degrees of hearing loss participated in a randomized study, receiving their services primarily through TI or via traditional in-person home visits. Pre- and post-test measures of child outcomes, family and provider satisfaction, and costs were collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The TI group scored statistically significantly higher on the expressive language measure than the in-person group (p =.03). A measure of home visit quality revealed that the TI group scored statistically significantly better on the Parent Engagement subscale of the Home Visit Rating Scales-Adapted & Extended (HOVRS-A+; Roggman et al., 2012). Cost savings associated with providing services via TI increased as the intensity of service delivery increased. Although most providers and families were positive about TI, there was great variability in their perceptions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tele-intervention is a promising cost-effective method for delivering high quality early intervention services to families of children who are DHH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, College of Education and Human Services, Utah State University, Logan, UT.
authors.forename: Kristina M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Blaiser
authors.affiliation: National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management, Utah State University, Logan, UT.
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Behl
authors.affiliation: National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management, Utah State University, Logan, UT.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Callow-Heusser
authors.affiliation: National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management, Utah State University, Logan, UT.
authors.forename: Karl R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: White
keywords: Deaf/hard-of-hearing; early intervention; tele-intervention