Teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents recognize the importance of providing deaf and hard of hearing children with full access to the languages around them. Without full access, reading and academic achievement remain far below intellectual capabilities. This article describes the Continuum of Reading Activities, which provides strategies that…

Studies have shown the benefits of fingerspelling on literacy skills in school-age deaf and hard-of-hearing students. This study is an observation of 20 first- and second-grade classrooms. The classroom observations were coded for fingerspelling event frequency, type, length, and whether it was chained to print. The observations showed that…

Designing professional learning that meets the diverse needs of special education professionals is exciting, challenging, and critically important. The staff at the Children's Center for Communication/Beverly School for the Deaf in Massachusetts support deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing children from ages 3 to 22 with a range of communication and…

Some older deaf students encounter challenges with print literacy, which can result from experiencing language deprivation and communication neglect. This article describes the authors' evidence-based framework that provides tailored language support--Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI)--and how it can counter language deprivation…

Language barriers negatively affect access to social services, particularly for D/deaf populations who use Sign Language. "D/deaf" is used to encompass both the cultural conception of capital-D Deafness and the medical conception of lowercase-d deafness. Language translation/interpretation is a common need among practitioners of social,…

Special education has changed over the years since its inception due to advocacy, litigation, legislation, trends, and research investigations. While it can be somewhat controversial depending on the disability the child might have or professionals involved in the process of instructing and planning his/her future education, it is a field that has…

This paper addresses current issues in deaf education including poor academic progress and employment outcomes of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) as well as provides suggestions for improving overall academic achievement of this population. Specifically, three instructional strategies are recommended for teachers: choral…

The study employed a descriptive correlational approach to explore teacher perceptions and preparedness for the inclusion of hearing impaired (deaf and hard of hearing) students in mainstream classrooms in selected public special education schools in Cebu Philippines. Through stratified convenience sampling, the research compared the views of both…

This paper attends to languaging in the context of visually oriented communities of sign language users through the concept of "chaining." I define chaining as the patterned, routine ways of interlinking different linguistic and multimodal elements. The goal of this paper is to discuss the concepts of chaining, languaging and…

"Using Technology to Enhance Special Education," Volume 37 of Advances in Special Education, is a logically, thoughtfully organized, and well-sequenced text. It focuses on how general and special educators can use technology to work with children and youth with disabilities. This cutting-edge book involves researchers, scholars,…

For families and educators, understanding and working with children who experience a combination of deafness and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be challenging. Yet both understanding and work are crucial. For children with ASD to succeed, parents and educators need to understand them and to be able to work together to implement successful…

About 15 percent of America's deaf and hard of hearing students are African American and about 25 percent are Hispanic/Latinix (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2011). This article documents a process that teachers who work with deaf or hard of hearing students can use to meet the diverse and individualized needs of their students while using…

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing present unique opportunities and challenges for literacy instruction in mainstream classrooms. By addressing the specific needs of this diverse student community, teachers are given the chance to sharpen instruction and create learning opportunities for the entire class. The authors discuss two…

In an ideal world, classrooms are not designed for and educators are not trained to teach the average student because the average student does not exist. Each student has unique measures, unique strengths, and weaknesses. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) allows teachers to easily accommodate every student; it blurs the lines of special…

Sometimes parents just do not know where to begin once their child has been diagnosed as deaf or hearing impaired. This booklet helps answer some of the questions these parents might have. A resource section has been included for parents and professionals for future reference. One of the most important things to remember is that, once a child has…