M.A. in Early Intervention Studies

This course is the first course in the Early Intervention Studies Graduate Program and serves as an orientation to the program. This course requires both on-campus and online participation. Participants will examine perspectives on working with young deaf and hard of hearing children, their families, and communities and will discuss the historical foundations of birth-to-three programs and services. The impact of early hearing detection and intervention principles and practices on newborn hearing screening and programs will be addressed. The course will provide an overview of the following topics: professionalism, advocacy, ethics, dispositions, diversity, and other factors that impact deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers and their families. Resources to support collaboration, leadership and change will be included. Evidence-based research and best practice guidelines that benefit deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers and their families will be addressed.

This course is the second course in the Early Intervention Studies Graduate Program. The course requires on-line participation. The course addresses language, communication, and cognitive development and developmental milestones. Participants will examine socio-cultural factors that impact linguistic, cognitive and communication development from diverse perspectives. The course addresses language learning models for ASL and English, bilingual, multilingual and dual language learning. Participants will explore visual, auditory and tactile modalities, technological devices for supporting language and communication development, and the research that underlies current practices. Participants will explore how professionals with varying disciplinary expertise can collaborate to provide support to families to enhance their child's development. Family language learning models including Deaf Professional/ Advisor programs and family sign language programs will also be addressed.

The focus of this course is research as a strategy of inquiry for improving practice and advancing our teaching professions. The general principles of qualitative, quantitative, and action research designs will be considered, along with related problems of measurement, statement, and clarification of research problems, and basic statistical methods for describing data. The goal is to produce professionals who are consumers of research in their fields who can apply research to inform and improve teaching practice, student learning, or the school learning environment.

This course is the third course in the Early Intervention Studies Graduate Program. The course requires on-line participation. This course examines family systems' perspectives and the interrelationships among the young child who is deaf or hard of hearing, family and communities. Family and community cultures, values and beliefs will be explored. Participants will understand the importance of building relationships and the research underlying the importance of family support systems, acceptance and accommodation. Emphasis will be on collaboration with professionals from different disciplinary backgrounds, leadership and advocacy. The course will address strategies and resources that promote family and professional collaboration, family-to-family support networks, and family involvement.

This online course is the fourth course in the Early Intervention Studies Graduate Certificate Program and the sixth course for the Early Intervention Studies Masters of Arts Program. The course addresses the methods, strategies and techniques for developing language, communication, cognition and literacy for infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. Candidates will acquire knowledge of assessments used to describe the strengths and needs of these children. The course emphasizes an interdisciplinary collaborative approach and the roles of related professionals (e.g., audiologists, early childhood educators, speech-language pathologists, social workers, psychologists, etc). Strategies and resources will address the continuum of communication and language opportunities including the development of spoken English and American Sign Language.

This course provides opportunities to observe and participate in early care and education programs for deaf and hard of hearing infants, toddlers and their families across cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This course provides a context for developing and enacting content, strategies, and pedagogical knowledge under the supervision of University Supervisor (US) and Mentor professionals (MP). Additionally, this course provides opportunities for development through self-reflection. The seminar will include opportunities for reflective group sessions.

 

This course is the final course in the Early Intervention Studies Graduate Certificate Program and the ninth course of the Early Intervention Studies Masters of Arts Program. The course requires both on-line and on-campus participation. The course will focus on both content and skill development in the areas of assessment and programming. Collaboration will be emphasized in the assessment and implementation of goals and services for young children and their families. The processes underlying the development of IFSPs and IEP's and transitions from early intervention to preschools will be explored. Strategies and resources will emphasize best practice in interdisciplinary, developmentally and individually appropriate and culturally responsive programming. Candidates for the certificate will present their final portfolios to provide evidence of their knowledge, skills and professional dispositions for working with infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing, birth-to-three and their families.

This course provides an introduction to working with and educating young Deaf infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families from a disability critical theory studies approach that incorporates the intersectionality of people with disabilities and racialized bodies. The course covers an overview on the factors including etiology and symptomatology that impact developmental disabilities aspects of Deaf infants and toddlers. This course also addresses evidence-based practices in assessing and interacting working with deaf infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. 

 

This course explores the concepts of race, gender, ability, culture, and intersecting identities shape our thoughts as they pertain to the study of early intervention justice and equity for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and their families. We will make use of social, cognitive, and developmental theories to explore what it means to be providers in a multicultural society. We will evaluate the construct of race, how babies, young children and adults come to make sense of race, and what utility it has for early intervention providers. We will examine how culture shapes our values, worldviews, and the ways we communicate with one another. We will define and examine implicit and explicit bias, how stereotypes affect behavior, and how privilege and discrimination shape the lived experiences of members of society as those experiences directly affect the families in our field. We will also examine the intersection of multiple social identities with an orientation towards providing equitable services with limited barriers. This course has a heavy emphasis on adults to think about the parents and caregivers with whom early intervention providers work, making way for a family-centered approach. Students of this course will take a reflective journey to reveal and begin to process their internal biases.

This course supports candidates to participate full time in an internship to work with deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers, and their families in early care and education settings e.g.  early intervention programs, parent infants programs, and daycares. This course provides opportunities to synthesize learning across coursework and field experiences and apply content and pedagogical knowledge with culturally, linguistically, ability, and socioeconomically diverse  deaf and hard of hearing young infants, toddlers and their families under the supervision of a university supervisor (US) and a mentor professional (MP).