What is the 1, 3, 6 Criteria & Why it’s Important for Your Child

In honor of Better Speech & Hearing Month, we're sharing how the CCHAT Center utilizes the 1, 3, 6 criteria as the ideal testing and intervention pathway for children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH).

What is the 1, 3, 6 Criteria for Hearing Loss?

The 1-3-6 guidelines are:

• A hearing screening by 1 month of age
• A diagnosis of hearing loss by 3 months of age
• Entry into early intervention services by 6 months of age
  

These guidelines help ensure that newborn children who are DHH get the help they need to live life to the fullest going forward. 

It also ensures that newborn hearing screening results are communicated to parents, allowing the family to quickly seek out early intervention services.

The CCHAT Approach to the 1, 3, 6 Criteria 

The CCHAT Center is approved as a Medi-Cal/CCS Type C Communication Disorder Center. This permits us to provide newborns who fail their initial hearing screenings with a hearing test re-screening and diagnostic evaluations.

Our goal is to ensure that each child and family gets access to a comprehensive program of: 

• Comprehensive audiology services
• Intervention Services
• Parent education and support
  

We want to make sure there are DHH specialists in all pediatric audiology appointments to help support children and their families. With a specialist in place, we can obtain detailed and accurate test results and provide families with the right kind of support for their child’s needs.

The CCHAT Center has a large set of assessment protocols to help measure progress rates in children between 0-36 months. 

When measuring the present levels of children who are DHH, most tests use milestones. Typically, hearing children are set as the standard. 

From all this data, we can accurately gauge where each student stands in relation to their hearing peers. This will help our team determine follow-up steps on how to help them progress toward their language goals. 

We are  finalizing an outcomes report for the California stakeholders. The report is about the impact of services on children who are DHH and meet the 1, 3, 6 criteria.

Overcoming Challenges Caused by COVID-19

The CCHAT Center serves Northern California and provides newborn hearing screenings and diagnostic services to children who need them. 

However, COVID-19 seriously impacted the referral system, which made it a challenging year. 

Despite this, the CCHAT Center still managed to perform 55 screenings and diagnostic evaluations over the past year. This ensured that, even with the ramifications of the pandemic, children with hearing loss would have the opportunity to meet the 1, 3, 6 criteria.

How CCHAT’s Partners Help Provide Families With Healthcare for Their Children

We partner with hospitals in the area to provide timely follow-up hearing health services. They can then provide information to their patients that includes early intervention resources. 

Ultimately, this helps the CCHAT Center reduce the negative impacts of hearing loss on:

• Speech and language 
• Academic achievement
• Social development
• Emotional development 
  

Access to this type of service is vital for low-income families struggling to receive the proper healthcare. 

To provide the DHH support services that families need, the CCHAT Center will continue to collaborate with all regional pediatric cochlear implant centers, including:

• Kaiser 
• UC Davis
• Children's Hospital Oakland
• Stanford 
  

While the CCHAT Center is fortunate to have its pediatric audiologist on-site, it is essential to maintain strong communication and collaboration with the other centers in order to provide our children with the best care during the cochlear implant process, evaluation and (re)habilitation. 

CCHAT’s Hearing Aid Loaner Bank  

We've partnered with Oticon and Phonak, two notable pediatric hearing aid companies, to help us maintain a loaner bank of hearing aids for newborns with hearing loss. 

This will allow us to meet the immediate amplification needs of young children diagnosed with hearing loss.

Spreading the Importance of the 1, 3, 6 Criteria

The CCHAT Center will be working alongside the University of Miami and the Teachers College at Columbia University to publish outcome data for children with hearing loss who meet the 1, 3, and 6 criteria. 

This data will help demonstrate to local school district and county personnel the potential cost savings when children with hearing loss begin receiving treatment before 6 months of age. 

We will be able to see the benefits of the 1, 3, 6 criteria immediately. By the time these children are in kindergarten, many will have developed language skills on par with their hearing peers.

At the CCHAT Center, we strive to make sure children who are DHH get the help they need. 

We want to establish the 1, 3, 6 criteria as the standard throughout the country, ensuring more children can begin the early development of language skills needed for lifelong success.

If you have any questions about the 1, 3, 6 criteria or want to get in touch with one of our specialists, contact CCHAT by calling (916) 361-7290 or send us a message on our contact page.