If a hearing infant learns language without any effort or explicit teaching, why shouldn’t a deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) baby be afforded the same privilege? In hearing children, oral languages are typically acquired effortlessly. In DHH children, oral languages often need to be explicitly taught. However, if DHH children are given a signed language like American Sign Language (ASL), they can experience that same effortless acquisition. Indeed, the only languages that a DHH child can acquire naturally and effortlessly are signed languages (Glickman, 2007).

A family language plan is a longitudinal plan that follows a child from birth (or later) through to the end of secondary school, to give the parents and child the best chance for success. The process of creating a family language plan helps parents consider their options, prioritize, and take the necessary steps to reach their goals. This includes goal-setting, mapping out where the input in each language will come from (in terms of people and time), how literacy will be approached in each language and how challenges will be dealt with.

This presentation discusses foundational skills critical for learning to read, as identified by the 2000 National Reading Panel, based on its review of more than 100,000 reading studies. These skills include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension strategies. Of these critical skills, phonemic awareness and phonics are auditory-based. This raises questions such as, “How can deaf/hard of hearing children learn to read?” and “Can they learn phonemic awareness and phonics skills if they have little or no access to auditory information?”

The early intervention system has various access points that families and early intervention providers can capitalize on to prevent language deprivation for young deaf children. Best practices and recommendations for ideal language exposure and acquisition for young deaf children that support healthy literacy development will be discussed.

Deaf education, especially related to language and literacy instruction, has historically been polarized and debated. Using Vygotsky’s sociocultural theoretical framework, which includes the principles of polyglossia, strengths-based practices, and zone of proximal development, participants will learn how to change the deaf education narrative from remedial-based to sociocultural, strengths-based practices.

The present study delves into an in-depth examination of the encounters and viewpoints of elementary school teachers concerning the play behaviors showed by Deaf children within their classroom settings. Employing a narrative inquiry design, this research enables a comprehensive exploration of the teachers’ observations about social interactions and communication development among Deaf children.

“To achieve literacy, there must be reading. To achieve reading, it must be meaningful. To achieve meaningfulness, there must be communication. To achieve communication, there must be experience. To achieve experience, there must be opportunity. To achieve opportunity, there must be care and understanding.” (Laurie Hinzman)

Teachers of the deaf often struggle with how to best support their deaf students’ literacy development, particularly when they are expected to follow the curriculum and instructional practices in public school settings. This article presents a case study following the literacy growth of a young deaf student in a rural public school. The author introduces the Bedrock Literacy Curriculum and Mind Bloom Education reading passages and explains how they were used to teach reading and writing and how this student learned language through print.

Language fluency and background knowledge should be considered as an important aspect of literacy development. Deaf students, in particular, come to the learning environment “learning English as a new language based on knowledge of ASL … or English as a new language, despite previous partial awareness” (Easterbrooks & Baker, 2002, p.166). Arts integration practices create a strong language foundation through providing a natural way to learn, connect to curriculum content, and reduce anxiety in the learning environment (Magsamen & Ross, 2023).

It is not always acquired naturally

• Visual/auditory access impacted
• Late exposure
• Incomplete message across multiple modalities
• Multiple Disabilities- Deafness not seen as primary concern
• English not the language spoken in the home

We sometimes take for granted that a message given is a message received

There is an order to acquiring language no matter what age you start

It’s not about how many signs you know or how many big words you can use

Children’s literature can have a significant impact on the way that children understand themselves and the world around them. This is especially true for members of minority groups. While there has been research analyzing the impact of children’s literature on oppressed groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, and, to some extent, disability more broadly, there has been very little work concerned with representational literature for Deaf youth.

In the last few decades, literacy achievement among deaf children who use sign language continued to be elusive. The purpose of this Professional Product Doctoral Capstone Project is to create a deliverable, the professional product, in addition to the report. The report offers background, process and application. The background presents evidence, historical background of the problem, and scholarly literature.

There is a mass of evidence to inform how proficient reading and writing develop and how to teach the necessary skills most effectively. Beginning readers need to know letter names and sounds. Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students need access. We can teach letter names and phonics skills to our students visually. Research and rationale support the use of Cued Speech/cued language to provide this instruction. The Cued Speech system provides visual access to the phonemes needed to develop these skills.

The term “language deprivation” is used in different ways in different contexts when discussing educational approaches for DHH children. Given that this can lead to confusion for education providers, this paper purports to clarify language deprivation towards conversations to integrate Deaf community models for targeted language development.

While the ability to mind ‘read’ sounds like a special superpower; it is actually a critical part of our everyday social interactions. For example, how do you feel when someone tells you about a sad or joyous situation? What do you think when you learn that a hearing family was just informed that their child is Deaf or Hard of Hearing? In these scenarios, we are able to mentally ‘read’ their minds—how they are feeling and what they are thinking, even though it is not our personal situation (although we may relate).

Language deprivation is the lack of language exposure during a child’s age of acquisition which impacts language development, academic success, and cognitive capabilities. Many Deaf children in the United States public school system are graduating without the readiness skills needed for post-secondary endeavors. In this article, the impact of language deprivation in the areas of academic achievement, vocational opportunity, and emotional regulation is reviewed.

Rural Deaf children face unique challenges to access an appropriate education