William Fertman, author

now available from bloomsbury academic

Only about .2% of infants born in the US are identified as deaf or hard of hearing, but 90% of these babies are born to hearing parents.

No wonder you were surprised.

My family wasn’t prepared for the arrival of our son. Unfortunately, the doctors, educators and therapists who were supposed to help us weren’t all that ready, either. Pros who work in pediatric deafness often carry outdated beliefs and inaccurate information on language acquisition and cognitive development. This makes raising a happy, healthy deaf or hard of hearing child a lot harder than it needs to be.

I wrote The Deaf Baby Instruction Manual as a cheat sheet for parents like us, with guidance by the real experts: Deaf educators and researchers who know the current developmental science of dhh children, and have first-hand experience of actually growing up deaf. Then I added poop jokes…