Guide By Your Side
Learn from this parent’s experience how the Guide By Your Side program supported their family.
Parent Guides
- Share lived experiences and meeting families
- Navigate B-3, educational, and medical systems
- Assist with unbiased decision making
- Connect with the Deaf Community
- Explore amplification/listening technology
- Answer questions along the way!
Guide By Your Side (GBYS) Information Packet
We are pleased to share these new resource materials for families and professionals to learn about our Guide By Your Side (GBYS) program. These materials are for you, whether you are a parent navigating the early stages of your child’s hearing journey or a provider supporting families along the way.
We believe families should never have to navigate this journey alone. These materials are tools to ensure that families are supported with compassion and respect, and that professionals are equipped to build strong, informed partnerships.
This information Packet Contains:
Family-Friendly Materials
- 12 Key Rights:
“What rights do I have while guiding my child’s early education journey?” -
- A family-centered explanation of the 12 rights outlined in the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing’s 2007 Supplemental Early Intervention Goals.
- Pathways to Support Services:
A Family’s Overview to Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Early Intervention in Washington State. An easy-to-follow guide for understanding how and when to connect to GBYS, and how it works in partnership with Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT).
Professional Materials
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- A Provider’s Overview to DHH Early Intervention:
Designed to help professionals understand how GBYS fits within the early intervention system and how it can enhance family engagement.
- A Provider’s Overview to DHH Early Intervention:
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- Talking Points: A Provider’s Script to the Guide By Your Side Program:
Simple, supportive language professionals can use to introduce GBYS to families with clarity and confidence.
- Talking Points: A Provider’s Script to the Guide By Your Side Program:
Guide By Your Side Program Provides:
- A Parent Guide to listen and share resources.
- Unbiased Support.
- Compassion and knowledge from parents who have a child with hearing loss.
Why is Parent Support Important to Families?
- Families realize they aren’t alone as Parent Guides share their own experiences.
- Support provided by parent helps to validate and empower other parents because they see what is possible.
- Information and support offered allows families the tools to navigate challenging systems.
Who is Eligible for Guide By Your Side Support?
- We support all families in Washington State who suspects their child may have a hearing loss, or whose child has been identified Deaf, Hard of Hearing or DeafBlind.
- We support families whose children are ages birth to 21 years.
Family Responses to Our Support Services
“The Parent Guide reached out to our family and, quite honestly, changed our lives. She offered guidance and support to help myself and my son cope with being DeafBlind, as well as offered a plethora of amazing resources that continue to enrich our lives. I cannot possibly thank Guide By Your Side and my Parent Guide enough. It’s an amazing resource for parents.”
“Thanks again for your knowledge and time. You have been so helpful!”
“Thank You for the resources! My husband and I felt, in regard to programs it needed to make sense for our whole family.”
“Thanks for reminding me that I’m my Child’s best advocate and for being by my side.”