Interdisciplinary Studies: Infants, Toddlers and their Families Masters of Arts Program
The Interdisciplinary Studies: Infants, Toddlers and their Families Masters of Arts Program (ITF) provides professionals from a wide range of disciplines with current evidence-based knowledge and skills for working with families and their very young children from birth to 3 years old who are deaf or hard of hearing. This interdisciplinary program provides preparation in professional and ethical practices, communication and language(s), families, and developmental assessment and programming. Candidates will acquire leadership, advocacy, and collaboration skills that promote age and developmentally appropriate outcomes for infants and toddlers. All coursework and field experiences reflect principles of diversity and social justice including understanding and appreciation of language diversity (ASL and English, as well as other home languages).
Admission Requirements
- B.A. or B.S. degree with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA
- Evidence of ONE or more of the following:
- a professional discipline degree in one of the following areas or related areas: Counseling, Education, Social Work, Speech and Spoken Language, Audiology, American Sign Language, Public Health, Deaf Studies, Interpreting, or Psychology;
- Evidence of admission to a program that results in one of the above-mentioned academic areas;
- Evidence of current employment related to providing services to birth-to-three-year olds and their families (e.g., ASL Teachers, Deaf Mentors, Paraprofessionals).
- Completed application form requesting admission to the MA program
- ASLPI 2 (Conditional acceptance for students with 1+ must receive a minimum score of 2 to receive the master’s degree)
- Three letters of recommendation
- Essay (in written English or ASL) describing candidate’s professional goals and rationale for applying to the ITF master’s degree program.
Note: Students who have completed the ITF graduate certificate within five years prior to admission are admitted to the M.A. program with advanced standing. Additionally, ITF 700, 701, 702, 703, 704 are not required if completed with grades of B or above within five years prior to admission into the program.
Graduation Requirements
- Successfully completed the program with 3.0 or above
- Successfully completed field experience and internships; passed disposition assessment, and field experience evaluations
- Successfully completed an independent research project
Plan of Study
Required Courses
| ITF 700 | Socio-Cltrl & Political Ctxts for DHH Infants, Toddlers and their Families | 3 |
| ITF 701 | Com, Language & Cognitive Dev: DHH Infants and Toddlers | 3 |
| ITF 702 | Ldrsp Persp on Families with DHH Infants and Toddlers: Their Cultures and Comm | 3 |
| ITF 703 | Strategies for Developing Com, Lang & Cogn for DHH Infants and Toddlers | 3 |
| ITF 704 | A Developmental Approach to Programming for Infants/Toddlers and their Families | 3 |
| ITF 707 | Social Justice & Equity Topics for Early Intervention Providers | 3 |
| ITF 708 | ITF Practicum & Seminar | 3 |
| ITF 709 | Young Deaf Infants & Toddlers with Disabilities | 3 |
| ITF 710 | Research Seminar I | 3 |
| ITF 711 | Research Seminar II | 3 |
| ITF 712 | Internship & Seminar | 6 |
| DST 712 | Enforcing Normalcy:Deaf and Disability Studies | 3 |
| EDU 720 | Introduction to Research | 3 |
| HSL 507 | Audiology and Communication Access for Service Providers and Professionals | 3 |
Program Outcomes
1. Demonstrate leadership and advocacy skills needed for meaningful participation leading to improvement in policies and programs serving deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers at the local, regional and national levels.
2. Apply knowledge of basic research to the development of a research proposal focused on factors that result in positive outcomes for young children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
3. Identify the strengths and challenges that families from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences face from the time of newborn hearing screening/referral through early intervention and transition to preschool.
4. Demonstrate effective interpersonal communication skills and appropriate professional and ethical interactions with families and other professionals
a) Demonstrate effective and appropriate skills for listening and responding to families.
b) Implement strategies to assist families in complex decision-making regarding language and communication opportunities, technologies and services.
5. Demonstrate ability to work collaboratively with professionals from different disciplinary backgrounds to provide services to children birth to 3 and their families:
a) Collaborate with mental health professionals and others to support families who show signs of needing specialized support services such as counseling or other emotional support.
b) Collaborate with audiologists, speech language pathologists, and other hearing specialists to help families understand their child’s hearing levels and appropriate technologies and services.
c) Collaborate with ASL specialists and Deaf Mentors to provide young children and their families with visual language models and strategies for early language acquisition.
d) Collaborate with families and other specialists to develop an appropriate IFSP
6. Demonstrate ability to gather child language, communication, cultural, sociodemographic, and other developmental information through appropriate assessment tools and strategies.
7. Recognize differences in child growth and development that require collaboration with medical and developmental specialists
8. Demonstrate appropriate interactions, services and resources for children with complex developmental needs.
9. Apply evidence-based practices (including research and best practice guidelines) in their interactions with children who are D/HH and their families to achieve optimal outcomes for children and their families including the ability to:
a) Implement services that support family health and emotional well-being such as family-to-family support networks and deaf adult mentoring programs
b) Promote the acquisition of language for children birth to 3 (and their families) through visual learning and ASL including bimodal bilingual language acquisition strategies.
c) Promote the acquisition of language for children birth to 3 (and their families) through auditory learning and spoken English.
d) Promote the acquisition of language for children birth to 3 (and their families) using visual, auditory, tactile strategies as needed.
e) Support the communication development of young children who utilize hearing, visual and tactile technologies as needed.
f) Demonstrate strategies for implementing culturally responsive, developmentally and individually appropriate interactions with children and families that support infant/toddler development in all domains.
g) Implement evidence-based strategies to guide families through the transition from Part C to Part B services
h) Collaborate with family members to develop IFSP goals based on appropriate assessments
10. Implement developmentally and individually appropriate programming and services for infants and toddlers with different abilities and needs.
11. Demonstrate professional dispositions for working with children birth to 3 and their families.
12. Describe the principles of family-centered practice including appreciation of the expertise of families and their impact on children’s growth and development.
13. Analyze personal implicit and explicit biases related to race, culture, and other sociodemographic areas and identities as they relate to working with children and families.