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Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Part I: Principles and Practices in Early Intervention -- 1. Early Intervention: Purpose and Principles -- 2. Interactions between Young Children and Caregivers: The Context for Early Intervention -- 3. Early Intervention Practices: Effective Strategies and Service Delivery -- Part II: Vision and Hearing Assessment: The Foundation of Intervention -- 4. Clinical Vision Assessments for Young Children -- 5. Functional Vision Assessment and Early Intervention Practices -- 6. Understanding Hearing Loss: Implications for Early Intervention -- 7. Pediatric Audiology: Evaluating and Managing Hearing Loss in Young Children -- Part III: Developing Learning Strategies -- 8. Promoting Early Communication and Language Development -- 9. Critical Transitions: Educating Young Children in General Education Preschools -- 10. Creating Accessible Preschool Learning Environments -- Glossary -- Resources -- Index -- Narrative Descriptions -- Back Cover

Learning a language is, at its core, a process of noticing patterns in the language input surrounding the learner. Although many of these language patterns are complex and difficult for adult speakers/signers to recognize, infants are able to find and learn them from the youngest age, without explicit instruction. However, this impressive feat is dependent on children's early access to ample and well-formed input that displays the regular patterns of natural language. Such input is far from guaranteed for the great majority of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children, leading to well-documented difficulties and delays in linguistic development. Efforts to remedy this situation have focused disproportionately on amplifying DHH children's hearing levels, often through cochlear implants, as young as possible to facilitate early access to spoken language. Given the time required for cochlear implantation, its lack of guaranteed success, and the critical importance of exposing infants to quality language input as early as possible, a bimodal bilingual approach can optimize DHH infants' chances for on-time language development by providing them with both spoken and signed language input from the start. This paper addresses the common claim that signing with DHH children renders the task of learning spoken language more difficult, leading to delays and inferior language development, compared to DHH children in oral-only environments. That viewpoint has most recently been articulated by Geers et al. (2017a), which I will discuss as a representative of the many studies promoting an oral-only approach. Contrary to their claims that signing degrades the language input available to DHH children, recent research has demonstrated that the formidable pattern-finding skills of newborn infants extends to linguistic cues in both the spoken and signed modalities, and that the additional challenge of simultaneously acquiring two languages is offset by important "bilingual advantages." Of course, securing early access to high quality signed input for DHH children from hearing families requires considerable effort, especially since most hearing parents are still novice signers. This paper closes with some suggestions for how to address this challenge through partnerships between linguistics researchers and early intervention programs to support family-centered bimodal bilingual development for DHH children.

This study examined the temperamental characteristics of 18 toddlers with visual impairments as reported by their Anglo and Latino (Mexican American) parents. Differences in the parents' ratings of the children's temperament were related to the children's level of visual functioning and development. No differences were related to the children's gender, and only one difference was related to the family's ethnicity.

Lessons learned from Project Salute : an introduction -- The sense of touch -- Supporting interactions through touch -- Assessing tactile skills and planning interventions -- Focusing on tactile strategies -- Considering multiple communication options -- Adapting manual signs to meet a child's needs -- Selecting appropriate tactile strategies -- Encouraging emergent literacy

This article presents a selective overview of topics related to the language experience of early bimodal bilinguals - individuals who are raised from an early age using two languages from two different modalities, typically spoken (or written) and signed. We show that deaf and hearing bimodal bilinguals may display patterns of bilingualism that are similar to unimodal bilinguals in some ways, such as the use of both languages in a single situation or even a single utterance. Nevertheless, there are also differences between bimodal and unimodal bilinguals, and differences among different subgroups of bimodal bilinguals, given large variation in relative access to the dominant and minority language(s) in their environment and their differential experiences in schooling and interactions with potential interlocutors. Moreover, we review studies discussing potential advantages of the sign modality and advantages of bilingualism in this population. We hope to highlight the importance of considering children's overall language experience, including the age(s) at which they are exposed to each of their languages, the richness of their experiences with each of the languages, and the ways that the language-learning experience may contribute to the child's linguistic and cognitive development.

AbstractUsing a 2011 national survey of urban residents, irrespective of their officialhukoustatus, and the 2000–2009 night-time light data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS), this paper goes beyond the simple dichotomy of migrant versus non-migrant or rural versus urbanhukouto disentangle the processes of urbanization and migration and their complex associations with health, and assesses the impact of various levels and speed of urbanization on the physical and mental health of current residents in a city or town. By disaggregating urbanization into three discrete dimensions at sub-provincial levels, we find that while a higher absolute level of urbanization at the county level negatively impacted self-reported physical health, faster and accelerating urbanization had a positive impact which could be attributed to the demand-pull effect underlying the healthy migrant phenomenon. By contrast, all three dimensions of urbanization were associated with greater depressive distress and thus had an adverse effect on residents' mental health. Beyond demonstrating how variation in the process and location of urbanization affects individual health, we also illustrate more broadly the value of modelling locational parameters in analyses of individual outcomes based on national samples.

Using a 2011 national survey of urban residents, irrespective of their official hukou status, and the 2000-2009 night-time light data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSPOLS), this paper goes beyond the simple dichotomy of migrant versus nonmigrant or rural versus urban hukou to disentangle the processes of urbanization and migration and their complex associations with health, and assesses the impact of various levels and speed of urbanization on the physical and mental health of current residents in a city or town. By disaggregating urbanization into three discrete dimensions at sub-provincial levels, we find that while a higher absolute level of urbanization at the county level negatively impacted self-reported physical health, faster and accelerating urbanization had a positive impact which could be attributed to the demand-pull effect underlying the healthy migrant phenomenon. By contrast, all three dimensions of urbanization were associated with greater depressive distress and thus had an adverse effect on residents' mental health. Beyond demonstrating how variation in the process and location of urbanization affects individual health, we also illustrate more broadly the value of modelling locational parameters in analyses of individual outcomes based on national samples. (China Q/GIGA)

The first edition of the China-Africa Economic Bulletin provides a comprehensive overview of the key channels of China-Africa economic engagement over the last decade, with a focus on shifting economic trends in the past five years. The collapse of global commodity prices beginning in 2014, tied with the domestic slowdown in China, has significant implications for the tenor and nature of China's economic relationship with African countries going forward. This bulletin provides more information on trends in bilateral trade, Chinese outward direct investment to Africa, Chinese labor and contract values, and Chinese loans to African governments.