A key step in effective advocacy is knowing how the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C Regulations work—and how your state puts IDEA into practice. ASHA provides these resources to support you:

• Early Intervention (ASHA Practice Portal Page)
• Understanding the IDEA (ASHA Advocacy webpage)
• Part 303 (Part C): EI Program for Infants and Toddlers With Disabilities—IDEA (U.S. Department of Education webpage)
• ASHA Analysis of the 2011 Idea Part C Final Regulations [PDF] (ASHA webpage)
• Part C State Systems and Coordinators (Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center [ECTA] webpage)

Gathering data is essential for EI advocacy—it helps audiologists and SLPs demonstrate needs, highlights gaps in services, and provides credible evidence to support informed decision making and policy change.

Here’s some information that you might find helpful.

Evidence Showing the Prevalence of Infants and Toddlers Who Are Eligible for EI Services

• The Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) reported that 441,515 infants and toddlers received EI services under Part C in 2023.

• The U.S. Department of Education reported that in 2023, nationally, just over 4 percent of U.S. children under age 3 received services.

• National surveys have shown that 13 to 20 percent of children under age 3 may have delays and disabilities that could improve with EI services, which means many more children may benefit than are being served through EI Part C programs, reported by the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center in a 2021 evidence review [PDF].

• According to the Center for Children and Families, “Medicaid is a key source of funding for the Part C Infants and Toddlers With Disabilities Program of the IDEA. The two programs work together to provide effective EI services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and developmental delays.”

Statistics Related to EI Outcomes for Toddlers with Communication Delays Who Received EI Services

• Nearly half of all children who began EI services with a delay in communication skills exited the program with age-expected communication skills—as reported by ECTA in 2022 [PDF].

• Researchers have found that for children with permanent hearing loss, enrolling in EI by 6 months of age was linked to higher language skills (both comprehension and expressive) than those enrolled later.

ASHA recommends establishing strategic partnerships as a way of strengthening your impact. Here are some ways you can do that:

• Connect with other SLPs in your state.

• Create or join an EI committee within your state’s speech-language-hearing association.

• Reach out to related professional organizations like these:
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)
• American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)
• Early Intervention Providers Association (EIPA)
• Hands & Voices
• Help Me Grow National Center

• Engage with parent advocacy groups focused on EI. One example is the Center for Parent Information and Resources (where you can find a local parent center convenient to you).

• Connect with local EI networks. This article, The Role of Community Partnerships in Early Intervention Services: Building a Supportive Network, provides some excellent suggestions on how to do just that.

• Join advocacy campaigns through ASHA Take Action and your state association. Two articles in The ASHA Leader highlight successful recent advocacy campaigns:

• • Kentucky Coalition Secures Pay Increase for Early Intervention Providers: Describes how the Kentucky Speech-Language-Hearing Association (KSHA), the Kentucky Early Intervention Providers Association (KEIPA), and individual providers came together—with ASHA’s help—to secure a 15% rate increase for Kentucky Early Intervention System providers.

  • Building a Grassroots CMV Action Group: Discusses an important advocacy campaign conducted by the Mid-Atlantic cCMV Consortium to support legislation for universal congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) screening.

When developing your advocacy message, it’s important to take these two critical actions:

• Craft a clear, concise statement on the importance of audiology and speech-language pathology services in EI.
• Prepare personal stories that highlight your message. Your stories are powerful—and essential! Don’t underestimate their value and impact.

Sample Statements and Elevator Pitches

To get you started in crafting your advocacy message, we’ve developed some sample statements and elevator pitches [PDF] that you can use as starting points.

Research gives advocacy its power. When you base your materials on solid evidence, you not only strengthen your message—you help decision-makers understand the importance of early speech, language, feeding/swallowing, and hearing support.

Below are a few key research articles and reports that form a strong evidence base for advocacy in EI. While some may be older, each remains highly relevant today and continues to demonstrate the critical role of EI in supporting children’s communication development.

• Early Intervention for Toddlers With Language Delays: A Randomized Controlled Trial (2015)
• Language Intervention Research in Early Childhood Care and Education: A Systematic Survey of the Literature [PDF] (2020)
• Long-Term Effects of Early Communication Interventions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2023)
• Early Intervention Influences 9-Year Speech, Language, Cognitive, and Quality-of-Life Outcomes in Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Children (2025)
• Parent coaching sparks major communication growth in infants with social and communication delays (2025)
• Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) Position Statements (2019)

ASHA has developed a sample advocacy handout [PDF] using data points from the above listed research articles to help you strengthen your advocacy efforts, communicate your value to decision makers, and champion the importance of timely, equitable access to EI services.

As an audiologist or SLP, you can extend your impact by (a) using the media as leverage to spotlight the life-changing benefits of EI and (b) sharing resources with primary referral sources to get important information into the hands of families and caregivers. By sharing credible, research-based information and highlighting the impact of early services, professionals can help ensure that more families understand—and access—the support their children need as early as possible.

Leverage Media and Public Awareness

Here are some ideas for using the media and increasing public awareness.

• Consider writing op-eds or letters to the editor for local news sources.
• Use social media to share information and success stories related to early intervention.
• Participate in local radio or TV interviews during relevant awareness months such as CMV Awareness Month and Pediatric Feeding Disorder Awareness Month.
• When interacting with the media, consider these tips:
• ASHA Member Guide: Working With the Media

Share Resources With Primary Referral Sources

Primary referral sources can include professionals such as pediatricians and organizations such as childcare centers. Consider sharing resources such as these parent education materials and websites with them: