Raising and educating a deaf child /

The overwhelming majority of deaf children, about 90 percent, have hearing parents, for many of whom their child will constitute their first serious encounter with deafness. The difficult and challenging discovery that one's child is deaf leaves many parents confused and uncertain about what they can and should do to help their child. The decisions parents must make are all the more difficult because well-meaning hearing professionals have both overt and covert agendas about deafness and the deaf. What parents need is accurate and up-to-date information presented in an objective, understandable manner. Although a number of works meet this need, none is as well done and cogently argued as Marschark's. His book offers a reasoned, articulate discussion of some of the central controversies about communication and the education of the deaf child, and provides both parents and educators with a balanced treatment of these controversies. It is a valuable contribution, for which parents and teachers of deaf children will be grateful. General readers; professionals. T. Reagan; University of Connecticut