A team of providers

When supporting a deaf or hard of hearing child*, it’s important to build a well-rounded team of providers. There are two key areas of focus: one group of professionals, such as audiologists and ENTs, focuses on hearing health and managing assistive technology. Equally important is a second team focused on language access and development. Our focus is on how to build an effective language team to ensure the child has full access to communication, cognitive growth, and social development.

Getting Started: Focusing on Language Access

A great place to start is by reaching out to an accredited school for deaf children. Many of these schools offer in-home and school-based services starting in infancy, and they can guide families in assembling a language team. If the school doesn’t provide all the needed services, they can help connect families with local providers.

Who Should Be on the Language Team?

Deaf Role Models

Deaf adults offer a firsthand understanding of growing up deaf and moving between deaf and hearing spaces. They can help children develop a positive deaf identity, showing them that being deaf is something to embrace, not overcome. Deaf role models can also help parents understand what life can look like for their child, offering guidance on self-advocacy and navigating a bilingual world.

Early Intervention Providers

Early intervention is critical, especially in the early years when language development is most rapid. But it’s important to find early intervention providers with expertise in working with deaf children and are fluent in sign language. These providers should focus on language acquisition and cognitive development, ensuring that the child has full, accessible language from the start, whether signed or spoken.

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs)

Speech-language pathologists can be an important part of the language team, particularly if families want to support both spoken and signed language development. However, not all SLPs are trained to work with deaf children. We recommend seeking out SLPs affiliated with Language First, a network of professionals who understand how spoken and sign language development works and who emphasize providing children with full access to a language-rich environment.

Teacher of the Deaf

A Teacher of the Deaf is an educator trained specifically to work with deaf and hard of hearing children. They know how deaf children learn, how to build a classroom that's fully accessible, and how to support language and literacy as your child grows. Depending on where you live, a ToD might work with your child at home in the early years, come to their school as an itinerant specialist, or teach at a school for the deaf. They're often the person who holds the language team together, turning what everyone else is doing into day-to-day learning. Good to know: some teachers of the deaf are licensed to focus only on spoken language, and aren't trained to support sign language.

By assembling a team that focuses on language—deaf role models, early intervention providers, teachers, and SLPs—you can help ensure that a deaf or hard of hearing child has the language support they need to thrive. While the hearing team (audiologists, ENTs, etc.) is essential, the language team ensures the child has access to the rich, meaningful communication needed for cognitive, social, and emotional development.

*We use the terms "deaf" and "hard of hearing" instead of terms like "hearing impaired," "hearing loss," "hearing difference," or "cochlear implant user" because those terms define children as though something is missing or broken, and they focus on hearing rather than the whole child. We like that "deaf" and "hard of hearing" describe people as whole people who have full lives.