Today’s guest on the podcast is Dr. Barbara Hecht, National Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech. She shares with us how to support Deaf, Deaf +, and Hard of Hearing students. Dr. Hecht shares about early intervention, brings awareness to CMV (cytomegalovirus), and how telehealth has positively impacted students. Katie and Dr. Hecht have such an important conversation you will not want to miss on today’s episode of the podcast!

[2:20] Dr. Hecht introduces herself

[3:40] Being involved with the IDEA law

[5:42] How she became involved with Clarke Schools

[10:00] Diagnosing hearing loss in infancy

[12:40] Two major causes of hearing loss

[13:16] Cytomegaolvirus (CMV) during pregnancy

[15:12] Importance of early intervention

[17:50] Early Intervention is available in every state

[18:39] Pleasantly persistent parent

[20:00] Acess to Clarke Schools

[21:36] Efficiency of teleservices

[24:33] How Clarke Schools support families

[26:45] Explaining Deaf +

[28:40] Integrating a tool for everyone

[31:00} Normalization n the atypical

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