Decisions...Decisions
Decision Modifications
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Ongoing assessment is discussed in the Getting Started section of this web page. You want to monitor your baby's progress at regular intervals as a yardstick to measure the appropriateness of what you have chosen for your child. Most of all, as parents, follow your instincts. You will know if your baby is excited, frustrated, moving forward steadily, or hitting plateaus in learning.

There are no "right" or "wrong" decisions. Give your choice a serious effort and be open to modifications in the original plan. As children grow and develop, what was a perfectly appropriate plan may need to be reconsidered. The communication mode that your baby needs at home may need to expand to several approaches after school starts. Many middle school and high school students make changes in their communication strategies to help them meet the challenges of later education. For example, a hard-of-hearing student may have more signing peers and may add American Sign Language to an oral or Manually Coded English system. High school students using oral communication techniques may add captioning or an oral interpreter in the classroom. A Deaf student might decide to move out of a self-contained program and into a public school for some classes to help prepare for college.

You need to make decisions along the way, but none of them are set in stone. As your baby grows and changes, new decisions will help fulfill new needs.