developing and validating early assessment tools that can be used by practitioners to identify and monitor preschool children who are in need of intensive early intervention. Interventions appropriate for development and/or evaluation under this program are interventions intended to improve cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional outcomes of children with disabilities or children at high risk for disabilities in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten. 

Interventions may be school-based interventions or home-based interventions that are integrated with a system for positive behavioral support intended to enable children's success in school. The long-term outcome of this program will be an array of tools and strategies (e.g., assessments tools, preschool curricula) that have been documented to be effective for improving the cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional needs of young children with disabilities or at high risk for specific learning disabilities from pre-kindergarten through kindergarten.

Speech disorder may manifest itself in various forms - delayed speech during childhood, stammering, speech disorders due to injuries or congenital defects like cerebral palsy, cleft palate and so on. Many a time, speech disorders are accompanied by hearing disorders and vice versa. These may be either physiological or even psychological. A person trained in this field would be able to assess hearing defects and give the required therapy. A speech therapist would be able to use his skills to help people communicate. Some of the tools of his trade would be to teach sign language to a person who is totally incapable of speech, to improve diction and articulation of those who stammer and to teach those hard of hearing how to lip-read. Learning these skills would enable better communication and thus improve the quality of life for the challenged individuals. 

The study of speech and hearing disorders is called Audiology. This is the branch of science that deals with human speech and hearing imbalances. The person who studies this rare subject is called Audiologist. An Audiologist can fix the causes of speech and hearing disorders in a person. He / she employ different techniques i.e. hearing tests, otoacoustic emission measurements, videonystagmography, and electrophysiologic tests etc to establish whether an individual is hearing impaired or not. Because of growing number of speech and hearing impaired individuals both children and adult, the demand for expert audiologist is on the rise and Audiology is recognized as a profession.

The Audiology and Speech Pathology in India was started as a profession by a group of enthusiastic professionals like Dr. N Rathna, Dr. S Nikam, Mr. Ramesh Oza and Dr. Vijay Shah. The first Audiology & Speech Language Therapy program was started in 1966 at T.N.Medical College and BYL Nair Ch. Hospital in Mumbai. In the same year, the Government of India established All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (www.aiishmysore.com) which became the country's leading Institute in the field of communication disorders.

Now, there are currently 20 Universities (8 Governmental and 14 private) institute in India which provide Speech Pathology and Audiology programs. These programs are accredited by Rehabilitation council of India (RCI). Majority of these institutes provide excellent multidisciplinary clinical setup for persons with communication disorders.

The profession of Audiologist offers both; the stature and the job satisfaction and is mainly suitable for those who feel joy in helping others. To practice audiology, a person needs to have either Bachelors / Masters Degree in Audiology and be registered with Indian Speech and Hearing Association (ISHA) or Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). There is a number of government and private health care agencies in which provide speech and hearing services.

A degree in speech and hearing is recognized both in India and overseas for practice as speech and hearing expert. Candidates having degree in speech and hearing can get employment in different government and private institutions. 

The Indian speech and hearing experts are in demand across the globe; particularly in west because of their unique multilingual / multicultural background and excellent communication in English. There is a rapidly growing community of qualified and skilled Indian Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists across the world; mainly in North America, Singapore and Australia.