It’s been four months since the Ida Institute began our work on our Transitions Management project. In that time, we’ve held four virtual meetings with participants from our global community, and have discussed what role the audiology community can play to help children with hearing loss and their families navigate the different phases of their lives.
At these meetings, our participants have considered how transitions are managed in schools, sports, or other areas of healthcare, and what resources and information are provided by other transitions programs as inspiration for discussion. They’ve shared research on transitions and related it back to self-determination theory, which looks at whether or not a person’s behavior is self-motivated. What everyone can agree on, is that transitions are a continuum in all of our lives, and they will continue to build on each other.
Currently, our participants have broken into groups focusing on the different stages of transition for children and young people and are working on projects to suit children and their families’ needs at each transition. We will eventually develop a framework that can be used by hearing care professionals, patients, and their families to help children successfully manage their own transitions.