FOIOFFICIAL24/25-2169 DOCUMENT 18 Knowledge Article
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EC - PEC - NDIS Pathway Hearing Stream
Guidance in this document is not approved for use unless you view it in PACE.
This article provides guidance for an early childhood partner and planner delegates to:
• Complete the Personal and Environmental Circumstances (PEC) case based on the
Form – NDIS Pathway Hearing Stream evidence of hearing loss (EOD Form) for
children who are likely to meet the NDIS Pathway Hearing Stream (hearing stream)
criteria
• Understand the areas of Daily Supports to consider in relation to the NDIS Hearing
stream pathway
• Understand the responses to the EOD and how they relate to the PEC Capacity
Building questions for children in relation to NDIS Hearing stream pathway
• Understand a child’s requirement for any equipment or consumables
Recent updates
October 2023
Current guidance.
Before you start
You have:
• opened a Personal and Environmental Circumstances Case (PEC)
• read article EC: Guide – Supports for children younger than 7 who are deaf or hard
of hearing (including under the priority hearing stream)
• read Deafness and Hearing Impairment snapshot
• read article EC – PEC – Capacity Building – Early childhood supports overview
• read article EC – PEC – Capacity Building – How to complete early childhood
supports questions
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For Internal Use Only Complete the PEC based on Form – NDIS Pathway Hearing Stream – evidence of hearing loss (EOD form)
For children that are likely to meet the hearing stream criteria, the early childhood partner will prioritise this work and gather all the relevant information needed to answer the PEC questions within PACE to support an Access Request Case.
Carers
Daily Supports
Refer to article EC: Guide – Supports for children younger than 7 who are deaf or hard of hearing (including under the priority hearing stream) and Children who are deaf or hard of hearing for information related to communication approaches. From the Personal and Environmental Circumstances case (PEC) - Carers step.
- In Does this person require daily living support in one or more of the following
areas?, select the appropriate boxes to ensure the TSP generates appropropriately.
- The question drop down includes:
• Auslan language development – This box will be selected if a child and/or family
requires training to use Auslan in their everyday life.
• Auslan interpreting – This box will be selected if the child/family require funding
for an Auslan interpreter.
• Specialised school transport – This box would not typically be used for a child
with hearing loss.
• Personal care in schools – This box would not typically be used for a child with
hearing loss.
• Specialised swimming lessons for water safety due to disability or high risk –
This box would not typically be used for a child with hearing loss however would
require a further discussion with the family or carer and mainstream swim school.
• Other – This box would be ticked if there were other reasons that the child requires
daily living supports due to their hearing loss. This box may also be ticked for
children with additional support needs outside their hearing loss.
• Not applicable – This box will be ticked if none of the above boxes are needed.
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Capacity Building
Developmental domains In the EOD form there is no corresponding question for this task. Gather information about the child’s capacity building needs across all developmental areas in preparation for completion of an access request case. From the Personal and Environmental Circumstances case (PEC) – Capacity Building step.
- In For each developmental area below, what level of early childhood supports
(capacity building) are needed to build capacity of the child and family?, select all
the relevant areas of concern to ensure the TSP generates appropropriately.
• Cognitive
• Social Skills
• Self-care skills
• Language and communication
• Emotional development
• Vision
• Hearing
- Review article EC - PEC – Capacity Building – Early childhood supports
overview and article EC – PEC – Capacity Building – How to complete early
childhood supports questions to determine selection of either low, medium, or high.
- From the selected developmental areas of concern, select:
• Medium to Low
• High
• N/A
- To describe information relating to a selected developmental area of concern and why
you have selected medium to low or high, an additional drop down will be available to
include free text. Where additional information is available, you should include in the
internal notes within the activity log.
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Confirming permanency of hearing loss diagnosis
- In Does the child have a newly diagnosed permanent hearing loss OR are they at
a high risk of auditory/language deprivation related to signficantly delayed
diagnosis or a hearing loss?
You will need to select the corresponding answer from the EOD. The drop-down options
are:
• yes,
• no or
• unsure/unanswered
Please note: In the EOD form Hearing Australia has completed the question ‘is the hearing loss permanent or is there a definitive diagnosis of Auditory Neuropathy (AN)? If Hearing Australia have selected yes then proceed with the access request case to update disability in PACE. If they have selected no, do not proceed with the access request case for the priority hearing stream.
Unilateral/bilateral
- In Does the child have a confirmed unilateral or bilateral hearing loss?
In the EOD Hearing Australia has completed the question ‘is the hearing loss”,
answering either unilateral (one ear) or bilateral (both ears).
- In the PEC you will need to select the corresponding answer from the EOD. The drop-
down options are:
• Unilateral
• Bilateral
• Unsure/unanswered
Confirmed level of hearing loss
- In What is the child’s confirmed level of hearing loss in the poorer ear?
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For Internal Use Only 2. Refer to Part C of Form - NDIS Pathway Hearing Stream - evidence of hearing loss
(EOD Form) which has been completed by Hearing Australia.
- Find the description of the child’s degree of hearing loss (normal hearing to profound
hearing loss). Enter in the PEC using the result from the poorer ear (higher degree of
hearing loss).
- Select the corresponding answer from the EOD. The drop-down options are:
Note: To answer this question for severe or profound you may need to refer to the PEC
Questions and Guidance for children younger than 7
• Mild
• Moderate
• Severe
• Profound
• Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD)
Equipment and Consumables
There is no corresponding question in the EOD form for this task. Early childhood partner will determine the low-cost assistive technology needs from conversations from the family and evidence provided. An early childhood partner will determine whether the child requires any equipment for their hearing loss (that is not funded under the Hearing Services Program) or any additional developmental areas of need.
- In Are low cost assistive technology supports currently required or likely to be
required in the next 12 months?
- From the drop-down boxes, you should select Communication to generate the Hearing
Service Program Co-contribution fee. Note: that this is only required to be selected if the
child requires or is likely to require hearing aids.
- Further information must be entered into the free text box field. The free text fields have
character limits. If more space is required, add the information to ‘internal note’ in the
Activity log.
- Select confirmed once you have uploaded relevant documents.
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Confirming child’s level of hearing loss
Hearing Australia completes Part C in the EOD form which includes the decibel range and level of hearing loss for the child.
Hearing Australia has interpreted the measured/predicted 4 Frequency Average Hearing Loss (4FAHL) and has classified the child’s hearing loss according to the classification table in the child’s left ear and right ear.
Early childhood partner to use the interpreted description of the child’s hearing loss (normal hearing – profound) to input into PACE.
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Amended Version Brief Description of Change Status Date by
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