Videos, generally a fun and effective teaching tool, can be a source of stress for students who are deaf or hard of hearing--especially when shown in classrooms in which a handful of deaf or hard of hearing students find themselves surrounded by students who hear. In fact, for deaf and hard of hearing students, video watching may be a source of…

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children experience systematic barriers to equitable education due to intentional or unintentional ableist views that can lead to a general lack of awareness about the value of natural sign languages and insufficient resources supporting sign language development. Furthermore, an imbalance of information in favor of…

The Individualized Education Program (IEP), the child's plan to ensure specialized instruction and services, can help deaf and hard of hearing children develop critical literacy skills. Deaf and hard of hearing children are entitled to an IEP when they turn 3 years old, and parents and teachers should begin to incorporate foundational literacy…

This article examines sustainability, equality, and sign language in terms of parents' and families' journeys to construct, deconstruct, and discover meanings through their experience of having a deaf child. Discussion is confined to hearing parents with deaf children, and the chapter focuses on two issues: (a) deafness or being d/Deaf and (b)…

We draw on an article published in 1973 in this journal. We described how we taught "Geoff," a 6-year old boy with autism, an elementary form of sign language during the course of 24 one-hour sessions held over a 12-week period (Webster et al. in "J Autism Child Schizophr" 3:337-346, 1973; Fruchter in "Autism: new…

A "heritage language" is defined as a minority language that differs from the dominant language used in a particular community. Codas (children of Deaf adults) who sign but may be dominant in the spoken language of their community present an interesting case due to the added difference of a spoken/signed modality in their linguistic…

No formal Canadian curriculum presently exists for teaching American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language to parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. However, this group of ASL learners is in need of more comprehensive, research-based support, given the rapid expansion in Canada of universal neonatal hearing screening and the…

Support for parents who wish to develop communication skills is critical. When parents have communication with their children, they are better able to express their concerns, expectations, and support. Bonding with children--and their social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic development--depends on communication with those who love them. This…

Childhood hearing loss presents challenges to language development, especially spoken language. In this article, we review existing literature on deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children's patterns and trajectories of language as well as development of theory of mind and literacy. Individual trajectories vary significantly, reflecting access to…

For over 25 years in some countries and more recently in others, bilingual education involving sign language and the written/spoken vernacular has been considered an essential educational intervention for deaf children. With the recent growth in universal newborn hearing screening and technological advances such as digital hearing aids and…

The authors address considerations and promising practices relating to assessment of d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Multilingual Learners. DMLs' unique culture(s), language(s), and learning needs must be considered when assessments of this population are being planned, conducted, and interpreted. The authors address theory and research on (a) general…

Epistemology is examined from two different perspectives within the framework of a broader evolutionary epistemology. Within this framework, reality is not absolute, and truth is a relative concept. People construct individual or personal epistemologies through their experiences, and develop or receive group or socially constructed epistemologies…

Interest in research on Estonian Sign Language, or eesti viipekeel (EVK), has been increasing. Studies have been conducted on different aspects of EVK, such as ways of expressing time (Trukmann 2006) and color terms (Hollman and Sutrop 2007, Hollman 2008). Moreover, EVK has lately received more attention in legislation. The language obtained an…

On July 18, 2010, the eve of the 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED 2010), the International Leaders Summit was held at the Center for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. A total of 120 world leaders from 32 countries participated. Presenters, including students, led the conversation on current…

The view that a deaf child with autism is just that--a deaf child first (because of the critical importance of communication) and an autistic child second--is the more prevalent today, especially in larger educational programs. But this was not always the case. In the past, placement decisions often were determined in the opposite way: Many deaf…