There are exciting developments in New Mexico with plans for a systematic state-wide expansion of hearing screening and follow-up in Early Head Start (EHS) programs. This effort comes from a strong collaboration between the ECHO Initiative and New Mexico's School for the Deaf, Head Start Collaboration Office, and Newborn Hearing Screening (Early Hearing Detection and Identification [EHDI]) Program.  Building on previous implementation efforts, the ECHO Initiative team recently provided on-site training to New Mexico's:   

• School for the Deaf Early Intervention and Involvement regional supervisors and audiologists;
   
• EHS programs already successfully implementing otoacoustic emissions hearing screening (programs in 4 out 5 quadrants currently involved);
   
• EHDI Coordinator;
   
• Head Start Collaboration Office; and
   
• Administrative staff from a Native American Early Head Start program.

As participants met together, they discovered additional opportunities for collaboration.   The School for the Deaf had already been providing otoacoustic emissions (OAE) screening training to IDEA Early Intervention Part C agencies, as well as helping children, families, and the agencies working with families through the entire hearing loss identification and intervention process.   Utilizing the existing statewide structure, and extending it to include ECHO Initiative activities, will result in a team of regional contacts poised and ready to support EHS programs in their efforts to screen for hearing loss.

Exciting next steps include:

• "Getting the Word Out" planned presentations at the next statewide Head Start Administrator's meeting;
   
• Nurturing success through regional support of EHS programs already doing hearing screens;
   
• Strengthening data submission; and
   
• Laying the groundwork for EHS programs eager to implement OAE screenings at their sites.

Long-range plans include a system for sharing data between the EHS and EHDI programs, with assistance from the ECHO Initiative, in order to reduce the number of lost to follow-up families from newborn hearing screening. A second project in the works, spearheaded by the EHDI program, is a collaboration that would enable midwives working with families who have chosen a home birth to offer EHS locations as possible sites for the newborn babies to get a hearing screen.

Stay tuned in the months to come to hear about the benefits that children and families in New Mexico reap as a result of this planning and planting!