A "must-have" for every professional studying or working with the families of deaf and hard-of-hearing infants and toddlers, Dr. Marilyn Sass-Lehrer provides readers with the evidence-based knowledge needed to implement interdisciplinary and collaborative early interventional programming for professionals and students. Featuring a collaborative team of expert contributors across a variety of backgrounds and disciplines - including educators, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and health care providers - Early Intervention for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families presents students and specialists with the fundamental knowledge they need to effectively design and deliver care to this population.

To correct the paucity of information on deaf or hard of hearing children and their parents' experiences with early intervention services, researchers explored these relationships as part of the National Parent Project. From this investigation, Parents and Their Deaf Children details the experiences of a group of parents and their deaf children from the first identification of the latter's hearing loss through their early years in elementary school. Renowned scholars Kathryn Meadow-Orlans, Donna Mertens, and Marilyn Sass-Lehrer reveal here for the first time the goals and expectations of the parents, the children's achievements and troubles, and the family's satisfaction and disappointment with health and educational systems. Parents and Their Deaf Children stems from a nationwide survey of parents with six-to-seven-year-old deaf or hard of hearing children, followed up by interviews with 80 parents. The authors not only discuss the parents' communication choices for their children, but also provide how parents' experiences differ, especially for those whose children are hard of hearing, have additional conditions, or have cochlear implants. Also, one chapter is devoted to families from minority cultures. The final section of this distinctive study offers solid advice from other parents of deaf children and also the professionals who serve them.