Families with children with special needs: hearing families with deaf children

Abstract

This article arises from an adaptive process that families should undertake with their children with special needs, and most specifically in the case of families with deaf children. It exposes recent progress in the development of deaf children and in the quality of family life through early application of new technologies and advances in early education.
It shows how such progress has repercussions on the kind of support that families receive from specialized centers and associations and also explores the effects of participation in other social networks. It concludes with some research criteria on the functions of networks in relation to educative practices in order to optimize the quality of life of deaf children and their families.