This article is the story of how Traci Penland, the mother of three children, two of whom are deaf, stopped thinking of "the school"--the combined presence of teachers, professionals, support staff, deaf education specialists, audiologists, and administrators--as her enemy in her pursuit to help her daughter in her educational journey. A…

Research is just beginning to describe the role of reading in the lives of families with deaf children. While the time that deaf children spend reading or being read to represents only a small part of their lives at home, research highlights its importance for young children--hearing as well as deaf. Children whose parents read to them at home…

The view that a deaf child with autism is just that--a deaf child first (because of the critical importance of communication) and an autistic child second--is the more prevalent today, especially in larger educational programs. But this was not always the case. In the past, placement decisions often were determined in the opposite way: Many deaf…