Sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL) comprise the same structural characteristics as spoken language, including tight grammatical constraints and rich expressiveness.

Link: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-08-language-neural-spoken.html

They may not be able to hear, but deaf people still take great pleasure from music—as a visit to the set of the Deaf Professional Arts Network’s latest music video shows.

Link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/20/this-is-how-you-make-an-all-deaf-music-video.html

The Federal Communications Commission is backing development of a platform that it hopes will help make communicating easier for the deaf and hard of hearing. At a Thursday keynote for the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI) Conference, FCC chair Tom Wheeler announced a program he calls Accessible Communications for Everyone, or ACE.

Read more:

Link: http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/21/9188679/fcc-ace-video-calling-asl-relay-platform

About 2 miles west of the Delaware River, eight deaf Jewish girls sit circled on a gym floor, tossing plastic fruits and vegetables at each other.

Zissy Moskowitz, one of two interpreters for the group, walks around the circle, taking pictures for a blog the girls’ parents have been following for two weeks now. Moskowitz, dressed modestly in an ankle-length skirt and long sleeves, explains that today’s lesson is about brachot, or blessings. On lap-sized whiteboards, the girls classify foods that get the same blessing: grains, earth growers, tree growers, meats, etc. Hence the flying eggplants and breadsticks.

Read more:

Link: http://forward.com/news/319050/a-summer-of-deaf-hope-at-camp-gan-israel/

While high school freshmen Ryan Bell and Sid Mautte IV may seem no different than other kids in the percussion section, both are hearing impaired and depend on technology to play. It is believed to be the first time hearing-impaired students have been in the Lyman Hall and Sheehan marching bands in more than a decade.

Bell, 14, who attends Sheehan, has Treacher Collins syndrome, a disorder that affects the development of facial bones. He uses a special hearing aid.

Read More:

Link: http://www.myrecordjournal.com/wallingford/wallingfordnews/7653073-129/hearing-impaired-students-join-wallingford-high-school-marching-bands.html

He’s a bright-eyed 10-year-old who won’t let much get in the way of telling a cracking joke.

Max Harpham, from Thornleigh in Sydney’s north-west, has been busily preparing a speech to wow some of Australia’s most powerful politicians in Canberra on Wednesday.

He will take the stage with 12 fellow hearing-impaired children from Australia and New Zealand at The Power of Speech event at Parliament House during Hearing Awareness Week to prove deafness is no barrier to education – or even public speaking.

Read more at the link below.

Link: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/deaf-children-showcase-their-public-speaking-skills-on-capital-hill-20150818-gj1jkp.html

The boy’s bionic ear is formally known as an auditory brainstem implant (ABI). It was developed in California’s House Research Institute which focuses on children who are born deaf without cochlea.

Read more at the link below.

Link: http://www.ischoolguide.com/articles/22622/20150818/bionic-ear.htm

The Maine Sunday Telegram’s July 26 editorial – “Our View: To break cycle of poverty, start with Maine kids” – aptly discusses the impact of poverty on Maine’s children.

Read how Maine is making a difference in the lives of children through EI in the link below.

Link: http://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/16/maine-voices-early-intervention-breaks-poverty-closes-kids-achievement-gap/

Derrick Coleman continues to be an inspiration by living with “no excuses.”

Link: http://kdvr.com/2015/08/06/derrick-coleman-the-deaf-super-bowl-champion-who-broke-the-sound-barrier/