Developmental issues in deaf children

Abstract

This article presents an overview of the development of deaf children. The central difficulty for these children is acquiring language; however, delays in language development are not inevitable. Deaf children of deaf parents are less likely to experience problems in this and other areas of development than are deaf children of hearing parents, although this latter group represents 90% of the population of deaf children. Much more needs to be known about the development of deaf children and the environmental strategies that maximize the development of children with a major sensory deficit. The implications for caregiving to deaf children and their families are discussed.