Interdisciplinary Studies: Infants, Toddlers and their Families Masters of Arts Program

This course is the first course in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and Families: Collaboration and Leadership (ITF) Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate 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 Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and Families: Collaboration and Leadership (ITF) Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate 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.

This course is the third course in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and Families: Collaboration and Leadership (ITF) Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate 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 Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and Families: Collaboration and Leadership (ITF) Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate 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 is the fifth course in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and Families: Collaboration and Leadership (ITF) Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate 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 capstone projects and 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 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 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 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 will focus on various techniques and methods of sociological research with an emphasis on selection, formulation, and execution of research projects in an applied early care and early education setting. Students will demonstrate an understanding of early interventionist’s relationship with statistics and research considering research and researcher biases as they pertain to evaluation and assessment. The primary objective of this course is to familiarize the student with important concepts of and stages in social scientific research. The course will begin with many different ways of acquiring knowledge, and then consider such concepts as hypotheses, theories, research designs, measurements, methods of data gathering, and analysis and culminate in the development and completion of an IRB approved research proposal by the student in their area of interest. Students will complete the CITI Trainings for Human Subject’s Research by the end of the course. Students’ critical thinking skills will be challenged and their points of view will be supported by evidence and theory.

This course will focus on various techniques and methods of sociological research with an emphasis on selection, formulation, and execution of research projects in an applied early care and early education setting. Students will demonstrate an understanding of early interventionist’s relationship with statistics, qualitative analyses, and research considering research and researcher biases as they pertain to evaluation and assessment. The primary objective of this course is to familiarize the student with important concepts of and stages in social scientific research. This course will be a continuation of Research Seminar I  to proceed on the next steps in the research process including collecting and analyzing data and reporting the findings. Students’ critical thinking skills will be challenged and their points of view will be supported by evidence and theory. 

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). 

This class will explore the historical, medical, social, political, philosophical, and cultural influences that have constructed the categories of ''normalcy'', ''disability'' and ''deafness''. Building on the writing of Michel Foucault and critical work in the field of disability studies, this course will inquire into the institutions that have enforced standards of normalcy, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the present. Primary attention will be paid to the rise of medical authority in the West, the history of eugenics, and contemporary bioethical issues confronting disability and deaf communities.

The focus of this course is research as a strategy of inquiry for improving practice and advancing our 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 for the improvement of their school or work settings.

This online course is designed for students who are preparing for Service Providers and careers working with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Based upon the World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), this course explores the biopsychosocial implications of both congenital and acquired hearing differences and their possible impacts on communication, education, participation, and quality of life. A special emphasis is placed on the diversity of communication needs and choices among deaf and hard of hearing people. Areas examined include interprofessional practice among counselors and audiologists, sound and hearing, the anatomy and physiology of the hearing mechanism, etiologies of hearing difference, hearing measurement, audiometric interpretation, auditory (re)habilitation, and multisensory communication technologies including hearing aids, cochlear implants, group listening systems, telecommunication devices, captioning and alerting systems. Practical applications of these topics for service providers and professionals are emphasized.