The SKI-HI Model of Early Intervention

The SKI-HI Model of early intervention was created to bring support and information to families in their homes by establishing one of the first home-based, family-centered early intervention programs in the country. Established in 1972, the SKI-HI Model of Early Intervention is a research-based early intervention program that is evidence-based and has been implemented throughout the United States. The program has been adopted and adapted to be appropriate in other countries, such as South Africa and Canada. The feature elements this program is a comprehensive early intervention curriculum, the SKI-HI Curriculum, which is a resource that is adaptable for any early intervention program that serves infants, toddlers and young children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. The other feature of the program is training and technical support. Our staff provide training and support to any program interested in implementing the SKI-HI Curriculum as their primary curriculum or as a resource and will provide technical support as the program begins implementing services. The SKI-HI Curriculum has been proven to be effective in supporting families in their journey of raising a child who is deaf or hard of hearing, and results in deaf children developing communication, language, auditory, early literacy and cognitive skills and provides information that informs families about the effective use and care of hearing aids and/or cochlear implants.

The SKI-HI Model of Early Intervention is a routines-based program, so strategies and skills are shared with families so they can embed new skills into their daily routines and provide an environment where their child has access to language and can acquire language naturally, regardless of whether the family uses sign language or spoken language or a combination of the two. Emphasis is placed on ensuring the child has full access to language all day throughout the day because without full access to language, be it through their eyes or through their ears, children cannot acquire language naturally.

The SKI-HI Model of Early Intervention...

  • Supports early identification of deaf/hard of hearing services, provides highly trained early intervention providers (Parent Advisors)
  • Is family-centered, so visits focus on all family members, providing education and support to parents and care-givers
  • Is home-based, providing weekly home visits in the family’s home and/or in community environments where the child and family live and function
  • Is routines-based, focused on coaching parents and family members to use new strategies and skills in their everyday routines and activities
  • Is invested in supporting deaf and hard of hearing adults in early intervention from the start of early intervention services
  • Focuses on the successful partnerships between early intervention teachers, Deaf Mentors and Snapshots providers and all early intervention team members
  • Focuses on providing families with education and information that is open, unbiased and provided in a format that best supports a family and their individual values and beliefs
  • Maintains a focus on ensuring that every deaf or hard of hearing child has full access to language and information throughout the routines and activities of the day
  • Incorporates topics from the SKI-HI Early Intervention Curriculum and materials into the weekly home visits with families
  • Incorporates the SKI-HI Deaf Mentor Program and the SKI-HI Snapshots Program as a full and comprehensive Early Intervention Program for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families

Training

SKI-HI Training is 6 full days of training that takes place in two separate workshops, each three days long, that take place 4-6 weeks apart. The training takes early intervention providers through the SKI-HI Curriculum Manuals and provides them with strategies, ideas and information on how to interact with families and integrate principles of home-based early intervention into weekly home visits.

SKI-HI Training is intended for professionals who have degrees in deaf education or a related field such as speech language pathology, audiology, early childhood special education or counseling. Anyone without a deaf education degree should have experience working with infants, toddlers and young children and work or life experience working with deaf children and adults. For more information regarding SKI-HI Training please or call or text Paula Pittman at 801-668-0948 or email her at paula.pittman@usu.edu.

Resources

The SKI-HI Curriculum and materials used in direct service with families can be purchased from our publisher, HOPE, Inc. Each participant at training will need a set of curriculum manuals and at least one copy of our assessment tool, the Language Development Scale, to go through SKI-HI Training. HOPE, Publishing produces a variety of materials that may be of benefit to early intervention providers working with deaf or hard of hearing children and their families in addition to these two core program materials.