Language development, and the challenges it can present for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, have long been a focus of research, theory, and practice in D/deaf studies and deaf education. Over the past 150 years, but most especially near the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, advances in the acquisition and development of language competencies and skills have been increasing rapidly.
This volume addresses many of those accomplishments as well as remaining challenges and new questions that have arisen from multiple perspectives: theoretical, linguistic, social-emotional, neuro-biological, and socio-cultural. Contributors comprise an international group of prominent scholars and practitioners from a variety of academic and clinical backgrounds. The result is a volume that addresses, in detail, current knowledge, emerging questions, and innovative educational practice in a variety of contexts. The volume takes on topics such as discussion of the transformation of efforts to identify a "best" language approach (the "sign" versus "speech" debate) to a stronger focus on individual strengths, potentials, and choices for selecting and even combining approaches; the effects of language on other areas of development as well as effects from other domains on language itself; and how neurological, socio-cognitive, and linguistic bases of learning are leading to more specialized approaches to instruction that address the challenges that remain for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. This volume both complements and extends The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Volumes 1 and 2, going further into the unique challenges and demands for deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals than any other text and providing not only compilations of what is known but setting the course for investigating what is still to be learned.

Marc Marschark isa professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, where he directs the Center for Education Research Partnerships. His primary interest is in relations among language, learning, and cognition. His current research focuses on such relations among deaf children and adults in formal and informal educational settings. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
Patricia Elizabeth Spencer is a retired professor of social work at Gallaudet University. As a research scientist at Gallaudet's Center for Studies in Education and Human Development, she had conducted research on early cognitive and communication/language development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Her ongoing interest in communication and language development grew from her "hands-on" experiences as a teacher, assessment specialist, and educational advocate for deaf and hard-of-hearing students as well as those with multiple learning challenges.

Preface
Contributors
Part One - Policies, Choices, and Foundations
1. It Seems Like Only Yesterday...
Patricia Elizabeth Spencer
2. Foundations for Language Development in Deaf Children and the Consequences for Communication Choices
Harry Knoors
3. Rethinking Total Communication: Looking Back, Moving Forward
Connie Mayer
4. From Erasure to Recognition (and Back Again?): The Case of Flemish Sign Language
Mieke Van Herreweghe, Maartje De Meulder, and Myriam Vermeerbergen
5. The Role of Language in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children's Social-Emotional Development
Manfred Hintermair
Part Two - The Basics of Language and Language Development
6. Perception of the Prosodic Characteristics of Spoken Language by Individuals with Hearing Loss
Tova Most
7. The Fine Art of Conversation: The Pragmatic Skills of School-Aged Children with Hearing Loss
Louise Paatsch and Dianne Toe
8. Grammatical Competence after Early Cochlear Implantation
Louise Duchesne
9. Spoken Vocabulary Development in Deaf Children With and Without Cochlear Implants
Mary K. Fagan
10. Fingerspelling: Beyond Handshape Sequences
Jonathan Keane and Diane Brentari
11. Vocabulary Acquisition in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: Research and Interventions
Daan Hermans, Loes Wauters, Margot Willemsen, and Harry Knoors
Part Three - Multimodal and Multilingual Language Development
12. Bimodal Bilingualism: Sign Language and Spoken Language
Ronice Muller de Quadros, Diane Lillo-Martin, and Deborah Chen Pichler
13. Developing Sign Bilingualism in a Co-Enrollment School Environment: A Hong Kong Case Study
Gladys Tang and Chris Kun-Man Yiu
14. Acquisition of Sign Language as a Second Language
Deborah Chen Pichler and Helen Koulidobrova
15. Teaching English as a Second Language to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students
Ewa Domagala-Zysk
Part Four - Neurological and Neurocognitive Bases of Language
16. A Biolinguistic Approach to Sign Languages
Antonio Benítez-Burraco
17. Neurocognitive Function in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: Early Development and Long-Term Outcomes
Irina Castellanos, David B. Pisoni, William G. Kronenberger, and Jessica Beer
18. Neurolinguistic Studies of Sign Language Bilingualism
David P. Corina
19. What the Illiterate Brain Tells the Deaf Brain
Alexandra Castro-Caldas
Part Five: Challenges for Language Users and Language Researchers

20. New Directions in Signed Language Assessment
Wolfgang Mann and Tobias Haug
21. Investigating Sign Language Development, Delay, and Disorder in Deaf Children
Chloë Marshall and Gary Morgan
22. Language and Communication in People Who Are Deafblind
Mathijs P. J. Vervloed and Saskia Damen
23. Dyslexia and Deafness
Rosalind Herman and Penny Roy
Part Six: Supporting Literacy and Learning
24. Cued Speech and Cochlear Implants: A Powerful Combination for Natural Spoken Language Acquisition and the Development of Reading
Jacqueline Leybaert, Clemence Bayard, Cecile Colin and Carol LaSasso
25. Encouraging Emergent Reading in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Susan R. Easterbrooks and Jessica W. Trussell
26. Phonological Knowledge and the Development of Language and Literacy Skills in Deaf Learners
Joseph H. Bochner and Aaron Kelstone
27. The Impact of Cochlear Implants on Deaf Children's Literacy
Margaret Harris
28. Scaffolding Learning Through Classroom Talk: The Role of Translanguaging
Ruth Swanwick
29. Understanding Language in the Real World
Marc Marschark, Elizabeth Jackson Machmer, and Carol Convertino