Using Family-Centered Practices to Increase Language Access for Multilingual Deaf or Hard of Hearing Children

Abstract

Children who are deaf or hard of hearing may experience language deprivation in the early years that impacts long-term communication and educational outcomes. Fortunately, family engagement in the early childhood years has been shown to increase outcomes for young learners, and the standards for early childhood family engagement align with best practices for teaching children who are deaf or hard of hearing from multilingual families. Best practices for early childhood education, deaf or hard of hearing education, and multilingual education all place the family at the forefront with a strong belief that family is the first and best teacher for their child. The purpose of the chapter is to present the alignment of family centered practices across early childhood, deaf or hard of hearing, and multilingual education literature and present family centered collaboration strategies to increase early childhood language access for young multilingual children who are deaf or hard of hearing.