Helping Children Who Are Deaf: Family and Community Support for Children Who Do Not Hear Well

Children who are deaf need extra help learning either a spoken or sign language, so that they can develop their thinking, learn to communicate, solve problems, and explore and interact with the world. Helping Children Who Are Deaf supports parents and other caregivers in building the communication skills of babies and young children. Packed with activities on how to foster language learning through both sign and oral approaches, this groundbreaking book explains ways to adapt activities and exercises for both a child's specific abilities and needs, and a family's unique circumstances. The book also explores how deafness affects a child's ability to learn language, as well as develop mentally and socially. Developed in partnership with families of children who are deaf or cannot hear well, community-based disability organizations, deaf adults, teachers, health workers and other experts in over 17 countries, Helping Children Who Are Deaf is practical, accessible and appropriate across varied conditions and cultures. Topics include: how to assess hearing loss, education for hearing-impaired children,causes of deafness, how to work on the social skills of a deaf child,support for parents and caregivers, and how communities can work together to help deaf children.