Investigating the diagnosis, assessment and intervention process of children 0-6 years of age who have comorbidity of hearing loss and autism spectrum disorders

It is known that children with hearing loss (HL) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience problems in their diagnosis, assessment and intervention processes in early childhood. Therefore, in this study, the processes of diagnosis, assessment and intervention of children with HL comorbided with ASD were examine via multiple case study. 10 Experts, 4 teacher and 4 parent who are involved in the mentioned processes carried out in 11 different institutions are included in the study. Data were obtained via semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis. Within-case and Cross-case analysis of the obtained data were used. As a result of the analysis, the common finding for all three cases is related to the process. Therefore, in this study, problems and proposals related to the integrative process and process of all three cases have been obtained. The ASD comorbids in HL children, the factors delaying the diagnosis process, and the use of hearing aid technologies are among the other notable findings. It can be suggested that stakeholders participating in the process are informed about the characteristics of both deficiencies and that the physical conditions of the environment in which the diagnosis and evaluation process takes place can be improved.