A culture of assessment: A bioecological systems approach for early and continuous assessment of deaf infants and children

Even today, with all of the hearing technology and bilingual programs available, many Deaf children arrive at school with severe language delays. With a renewed focus on having Deaf children kindergarten‐ready, assessment of language milestones becomes critical as seen in the campaign Child First and the legislation referred to as Language Equality & Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD‐K). Here, a strategy is proposed to ensure that Deaf children are kindergarten‐ready. The focus is on a re‐evaluation of the epistemologies of the social and individualized medical models of health, as well as Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems approach, to assess all components that impact a Deaf child's ecology to permit maximizing their developmental potentials.