Connie Mayer is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University in Toronto, and the academic coordinator of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Teacher Education Program. Her current research focuses on written language and literacy development in deaf learners, early literacy and early intervention, cochlear implantation, bilingualism, and models of teacher education. Beverly J. Trezek is Associate Professor of Special Education and the co-director of the Reading Specialist Program at DePaul University in Chicago. Her research interests focus on reading instruction for beginning and struggling readers, with a particular emphasis on investigating the role that phonemic awareness and phonics play in the development of literacy skills for deaf students.
"Featured in the December 2015 issue of CHOICE ""The authors' aim is to highlight the importance of effective early literacy development in deaf children and ultimately outline a theoretical framework to successfully develop this. After a detailed overview of the latest research, the authors progress to acknowledge the relative deficit of data in this field, specifically related to deaf children's language acquisition and development compared to the research available for hearing children. The book promotes opportunity for further research; recording and tracking deaf learners though their early literacy acquisition experiences, development and the impact this has on their later language abilities. Overall this is a thought provoking and timely reference for those both new and experienced in the field of deaf pedagogy."" -Kim Davis, review in Deafness & Education International"