Affiliation:
1. Iona University, USA
2. St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf, USA
Abstract
This chapter was written by an interdisciplinary group of authors representing the disciplines of deaf education, speech-language pathology, marriage and family therapy, and educational leadership; and including parents of children with disabilities, including one parent of hard of hearing children. While the contents of the chapter are applicable to professionals working in any area of special education, the chapter specifically focuses on working with children who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or deaf-disabled, and their families. The authors take readers on a family engagement journey that begins with learning about one family's experience raising children who are hard of hearing, then moves to discussions about strengths-based counseling and intervention approaches, acknowledging the difficult conversations that may arise during family engagement, and culminates in readers' awareness that becoming a skilled family-engaged practitioner is a lifelong process.