The roller-coaster of experiences: becoming the parent of a deaf child

Abstract

When early testing indicates a hearing loss, parents find themselves on a roller-coaster of experiences leaving little time or space for reflection. This study is based on interviews with families in the Flemish region of Belgium, one of the earliest in the world to introduce universal neonatal screening for hearing loss. Starting from a phenomenological approach, we explore parents’ accounts of their experiences in order to uncover the meanings of early parenting of a child identified with a label. Soon after birth, these parents encounter a different world in which intertwined discourses construct parenthood with a deaf child. During the process of becoming a parent, representations of deafness as impairment were omnipresent. In contrast to a medical and technological perspective that insists on the need to intervene as fast as possible, it is argued that the private and social implications of rapid intervention require explicit consideration.

Keywords:

• parenting a deaf child
• early hearing screening
• deafness
• rapid medicalized intervention

Acknowledgements

The conceptualization, data collection and analysis in this study have been funded by University College West-Flanders. Recruitment of parents was made possible thanks to the collaboration of Kind&Gezin, the child welfare organization of the Flemish Community of Belgium. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to Stuart Blume and Elisabeth De Schauwer who have provided invaluable support and feedback on this article.