Parents' narratives on cochlear implantation: reconstructing the experience of having a child with cochlear implant

Abstract

This paper discusses parents' narratives on cochlear implantation in Bogotá, Colombia using a qualitative approach. The main research objective was to identify how parents perceived the processes of diagnosis of their child's hearing loss, making the decision for cochlear implantation and the post-surgery period. All participants were hearing couples (n = 13) with similar socio-cultural backgrounds whose children had undergone cochlear implant surgery. Results show why cochlear implants are a very highly valued technological device with great symbolic power for parents. The study also deals with how perceptions about oral/sign language and disability, as well as social expectations for their children's lifetime opportunities, determine how the parents themselves have experienced their journey through the process of their children's cochlear implantation.

Keywords:

• Cochlear implants
• Parents' narratives
• Perception
• Socio-cultural context
• Deaf children

Acknowledgments

We extend our thanks to all the parents who participated in this study for their valuable time and collaboration and to Catalina Gonzalez for her hard work at the beginning of the study. Finally, we are grateful to the Grupo de Implante Coclear, Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá and to the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Los Andes for their support throughout this research.