Baby face qualitative Evaluation

Challenges 
Hearing screenings
The hearing screening proved a challenge for ten sites (mentioned by 10 parent educators and 
four supervisors) for the following reasons: wax build-up in children’s ears, difficulty with the 
machine, children removing the ear plugs, and resistance from parents wanting to do these types 
of medical screenings they felt should be done by doctors. Some parent educators overcame this 
resistance from parents by referring them to clinics or hospitals for the vision and hearing 
screenings, or obtaining copies of these medical screens from other sources to avoid duplicative 
screenings.
The hearing and the vision screenings. The majority [of parents] don’t want us to do the hearing 
and the vision. They would like a real doctor to do those. 
I think the OAE machine, the hearing machine not working properly. Sometimes I have a hard time 
using that machine. It is a very sensitive device, so lugging it around with me, I was not very 
comfortable. 

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Baby FACE 
Wilder Research, January 2015 
 
Qualitative Evaluation 
27 
The only challenge is when we do the hearing screening. They get antsy [and] they start taking the 
earplugs out of their ears. I try to do the hearing test on the babies when they are sleeping. Giving 
them the hearing test, they start crying. 
Parent resistance
Parent resistance to screenings was mentioned as a challenge for seven sites (mentioned by seven 
parent educators and two supervisors). Parents were reluctant to have their child screened 
because of the length of the assessment, the child had already been screened at a clinic, or in 
some cases, they were in denial about a possible developmental delay.
One of the reasons behind that is that I think parents don’t really want to know - being in denial that 
there are issues, so not really wanting to know. The fear of exposure, that others will find out what 
their situation really is.
Most of my families say that the tribe did the screening when they come to the clinic, so they really 
don’t care for the screening, when it has already been done.