ABSTRACT
In a climate of deaf empowerment, fi ndings in cognition and neuroscience, mental health, visual ways of learning, legal protections, and advances in visual, auditory and brainimaging technologies, opportunities for understanding individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing couldn’t be more plentiful. Often not-emphasized enough though are risk factors. Indeed, if early language and education are delayed, cognitive and language deprivation, social isolation, illiteracy, emotional and behavioral problems may occur. We use our combined experiences as authors from three disciplines-language and literacy, school administration, and school psychology-coupled with selective research fi ndings to address these risk factors.
