Parent participation in rehabilitation programs for children with special needs requires program designers to accommodate each family's particular needs and characteristics. This study investigated maternal reports on various characteristics of 50 Israeli deaf preschoolers, their parents, and families, and examined these characteristics' links with mothers' expectations from early intervention. Characteristics linked with maternal expectations from intervention included: mother's pessimism, need for independence, ability to control her life, and receipt of practical assistance and formal and informal support; family's degree of communication and interaction; children's communication mode and age at onset of treatment; and additional deaf siblings in the family. A four-cluster model depicts the relations between mothers', families', and deaf children's attributes and the mothers' expectations, entailing recommendations for intervention planning. (Contains 2 tables.)