AzEIP Provides Hearing Services for Newborn, Family

The Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP) provides early intervention services to families with children from birth to three years old who have disabilities or developmental delays. Specialists work with these families to help foster the growth and development of young children.

In the case of Miquel and Courtney Arévalo, their daughter, Alina, was born in 2021 with a genetic condition that caused growth issues, deafness, and other disabilities. During the whirlwind of the first few months, which included a 44-day NICU stay for Alina, AzEIP was there to guide the family on next steps and connected them with a teacher of the deaf through the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind, which started almost immediately after Alina’s discharge.

Courtney alluded to a stat from a PBS story on advocating for deaf children, where 90% of deaf children are born to non-deaf parents. A large portion of the parents don’t know or learn sign language, and less than 10% of deaf children in America learn it themselves. She credited AzEIP for allowing them to eventually learn sign language to be able to communicate with their daughter.

“That’s why we’re appreciative of AzEIP, because they provided that resource from the beginning for families like us who said, ‘yes, we want to be a part of that 10% who sign (know ASL), we want to communicate to our child.’ We could not have learned how to do that if it weren’t for AzEIP.”

Visit the AzEIP website for more information.