The Early Care and Education of Deaf Children in Ghana

This book examines how an understanding of social-cultural and resource dynamics can inform the development of context-sensitive approaches to the early education and care of young deaf children, and the support of their caregivers. The authors investigate what it takes to facilitate deaf children’s progress through early childhood, focusing on language, communication, learning, and well-being in the sub-Saharan African context of Ghana. They provide a review and critical discussion of the existing knowledge base surrounding early childhood deaf education and examine traditional and contemporary perspectives on childhood deafness and caregiving that are meaningful to the African early childhood deaf education landscape. The book draws on the knowledge and understanding developed through a collaborative UK-Ghana research project that examined the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) of young deaf children in Ghana. Examples from this project bring to life the issues surrounding caregiving, childhood deafness and early support in sub-Saharan Africa and advances voices from this context. As a co-authored text and collaboration between UK and Ghana researchers the work brings a new and context sensitive contribution to the examination of early education programming for young deaf children, addresses gaps in the global ECCE research, and shifts the traditional flow of knowledge to open the potential of south-north illumination and learning.