How Deaf Children Learn What Parents and Teachers Need to Know

In this invaluable guide, renowned authorities Marc Marschark and Peter Hauser highlight important new advances in scientific and educational research that can help parents and teachers of students with significant hearing loss. The authors stress that deaf children have strengths and needs that are sometimes dramatically different from those who can hear. Consequently, if deaf students are to have full academic access and optimal educational outcomes, it is essential that parents and teachers learn to recognize these differences and adjust their teaching methods to them. Marschark and Hauser explain how the fruits of research conducted over the last several years can markedly improve educational practices at home and in the classroom, and they offer innovative strategies that parents and teachers can use to promote learning in their children. The result is a lively, accessible volume that sheds light on what it means to be a deaf learner and that provides a wealth of advice on how we can best support their language development, social skills, and academic success.

1. What It's All About; Who Are We and What Are We Doing Here?; Alternative Perspectives on Educating Deaf Students; Using This Book; Notes, Confessions, and Acknowledgments; 2. Introduction to Deaf Children; Navigating Issues; Those Who Ignore History...; Terms of Endearment (or Not); Differences versus Deficiencies; Final Words; 3. On Hearing and Not Hearing; Understanding Hearing; Hearing Aids; Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Cochlear Implants; Final Words; 4. Language and Communication; Understanding Language; From Communication to Language; Signed Languages and Visual Communication Systems; Spoken Communication; Final Words; 5. Family and Peers: Foundations of Learning; Education Begins at Home; Social Interactions: Foundations for Learning; Early Intervention; Moving from Home to School; Social-Emotional Growth during the School Years; Last Words; 6. Deaf Cognition; Are Deaf Children As Smart As Hearing Children?; Do Deaf Individuals See Better?; Does Sign Language Have an Effect on Words about; 7. Learning and Memory; Cognition and Learning: From Darkness to Enlightenment; Learning; Memory; Final Words; 8. Problem Solving and Knowledge; Experience and Conceptual Development; Integration and Organization of Knowledge; Final Words; 9. Reading; The Challenge of Learning to Read; What Can We Do about Deaf Students' Reading Achievement?; A Few Words about Writing; Final Words; 10. Doing Math: Foundations; Understanding Number; Understanding Mathematics during the School Years; Improving Mathematics Performance by Deaf Children; Final Words; 11. The Deaf Education Classroom; Options in Deaf Education Programming; Assessment and Classroom Placement; Classroom Diversity; The Classroom; Deaf Education Professionals; Final Words; 12. Where Do We Go from Here?; A Journey of 1000 Miles Begins with a Single Step; The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same; There Are Differences and Then There Are Differences; What We Know and What We Need to Know; Final Final Words; Additional Reading; References; Index

Marc Marschark is a Professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, where he is Director of the Center for Education Research Partnerships. Peter C. Hauser is Associate Professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, where he is director of the Deaf Studies Laboratory.