The Early Education Program for Hearing Impaired Children (EEP) was founded in 1980 with the sole purpose of assisting families of permanently hearing-impaired preschool-aged children. Originally part of the John Pierce Centre in Ripponlea, the EEP incorporated in 1996 after becoming a separate entity a year prior.
The EEP provides Early Childhood Intervention Services and is part of the Victorian Early Childhood Intervention Sector, which qualifies EEP to receive some government funding contingent upon an annual performance review to assure standards are met. The program is tax exempt. To supplement funding from the State Government of Victoria, EEP has annual fundraisers and accepts tax-deductible donations.
The Early Education Program for Hearing Impaired Children accepts infants and preschool-aged children who have permanent hearing loss living in the municipalities of Bayside, Glen Eira, Port Phillip, Greater Dandenong and in some areas of Stonnington, Casey, Frankston, Kingston and the Mornington Peninsula.
EEP offers both individual and group programs to assist children and families with communication, including language and speech development, as well as social and behavioral skills. Programs emphasize comprehensive audiological management, to help parents deal with and understand the impact of the hearing loss of their child. This includes educational information on the correct use of hearing aids, cochlear implants and FM units. Individual programs provide one-on-one assistance to help parents best encourage and foster their child's development while EEP professionals monitor the child's speech and language progress. Group programs allow deaf and hard-of-hearing children to interact with each other while giving parents the opportunity to get to know other local families in the same situation.
Because dealing with the diagnosis of a child's hearing impairment can be difficult and overwhelming, EEP provides an early support program for parents of infants recently diagnosed, as well as an ongoing emotional support program for all families of preschool-aged children. EEP offers counseling, as well as support in the form of educational information about hearing loss in children and referrals to professionals within the community.