Final thoughts

I have enjoyed discussing a topic that is dear to my heart. Through this blogging proccess I have learned to appreciate the study of Deaf Parents and thier hearing children. I would like to know what others who have commeted on my blog throughout the quarter have learned from my blog.

I personally have learned alot from the different resources each week from the blog.  I am looking forward to seeing what others have learned from the blog.

Deaf Parents and hearing Children Study

I found a study on Deaf parents and their hearing children. The study focuses on the range of difficulties that deaf parents may experience with their hearing children, and why those difficulties exist.  The studies focus on thirteen families. There were several issues that arouse in the discussions of the thirteen families.  The discussion is very explicit. One couple worried since their children could hear, would they hear them having sex, when they couldn’t. The study is broken down into several discussions on different topics such as relationships, finances, access and availability. I found this interesting because the parents all had valid issues that were similar.

I remember reading in one of the chapters in our text, discussing family support groups and how families feel comfortable learning from other families in similar situations as theirs. This is exciting to connect because I feel like support groups or discussion groups can be helpful when dealing with people in similar situations.

  The families’ conversations on access and information seemed similar because the parents were frustrated on the lack of information for Deaf parents and hearing children. The author suggest that more studies should be done to understand the difficulties that deaf parents face and the resources available to them.

The article is below is a very interesting. What do you take from this article?

http://deafstudiestrust.org/files/pdf/reports/Deaf%20Parents%20and%20their%20Hearing%20Children1997.pdf

Collaboration

Collaboration is really important for families and the schools their children attend. Collaboration means more than just meeting with the parents it means meeting with the family. As teachers we have to learn about our students through thier interactions in class, but also those from home. A child may behave differently at school as they do at home. The collaboration has to begin on both ends. When having a Deaf parent and hearing children what would be the first way to collaborate with the parent?


As a teacher I would first learn about the parent through thier children. At the beginning of the year, I would send out an newsletter, that provides information about the classroom and the school. I would have the parents send back a contact card to provide any information about them or thier families I should know. For example this information could be something like thier child will walk home with thier older brother.  I would also ask the student to do An About Me poster. Hopefully this poster would include any information about thier parents and thier family.


The beginning of the year is crucial to begin collaborating with familiHaves, because you can learn information from families, rather than previous teachers. Previous teachers might have a bias opinion and shape your opinion.  The text book always emphasied communication and trying to understand and accomodate the families rather than just the parent. One aspect that stood out to me was the siblings affect. A sibling might feel burden or embarrassed about thier other siblings disability and the parents might not be aware.  School proffesonals could collaborate with the siblings during the school day to relieve some of this stress. They could provide classess for mediation or understanding between families  and siblings.  Having a Deaf parent and one hearing child and a deaf child may cause stress or a feeling of being left out because they are the only one who can hear. It could also give a feeling of being the care taker instead of the child.

Having Deaf parents and siblings and being the only Hearing Child would be difficult to deal with. How do you think school personnel and other resources can help a hearing child with deaf parents and siblings?

Collaboration

Last week I discussed Deaf Parent Teacher Conferences, which is one element of collaboration. Collaboration is the key aspect of communication and success for families. Families and school personnel should work together not only to benefit the child, but to benefit the whole entire family. School personnel, teachers, and other advocates for children and special education can provide families with resources beneficial to both parties. Deaf parents might have a child with a disability other than besides deafness and would need further assistance. The school must find a way to communicate with parent. They would need to have an interpreter or refer them to resources that offer interpreters for the family. Collaboration benefits both parties because both parties are working as a team to help each other understand or obtain a common goal. Children of Deaf parents might suffer emotional stress of not being able to talk to their parents. This could be reflected in their school work and behavior. The Deaf parent might not be aware of this stress until they are referred to a family counselor or school counselor. Collaboration between families and school could eliminate some stressors within the family. I decided to research the emotional stress of having A Deaf Parent and being a Hearing child. I found this article . It discusses the stressors of having a Deaf parent. http://deafness.about.com/cs/parentingarticles/a/deafparents.htm

Deaf Parent and Teacher communication

This week I wanted to discuss what it would be like as teacher with deaf parents of a hearing child. Earlier this week in class we had discussion about what the teacher should know when conducting a confrence with a parent who has a disability. What would the teacher do to conduct a successful confrence? How would the teacher communicate with the parent? Would the teacher have an interpeter from the school, or have the child intepret everything for the parents? Would the teacher trust the child to interpet the right information or not? This conversation was interesting because as teachers we often worry about the children in our classroom who have disabilites. We never really think about the parents having a disiablity. This is something that needs to be introduced to teachers. How to effectively communicate with parents who are non hearing. Some of my classmates stated that they would not trust the child to interpet the confrence. Others suggested what if the school did not have an interpeter? What if the school didn't have enough money to hire one. We went back and forth on this topic and came to a conclusion. A teacher must either have an school intepeter, or just right everything down for parents who can't hear. A good idea would be to prepare a script of everything the teacher is going to say or have outline of what is being discussed in the confrence. I would make sure the parent could read lips as well. I would like to know what everyone elses thinks about Deaf Parent Teacher confrence and how you would conduct the meeting.

Coda Diva

From watching the video on the previous post with the Deaf parent Hearing child survey. I decided to research the lady who conducted the survey. She has her own website and organization. Her name is Liysa Callsen and she is a humanist, professional speaker, and comic. She has several videos posted on her site discussing her life as a child of Deaf Parents. She is availble for speaking at events. Pleas take the time to check out her site. She has alot of good insight on my topic of Deaf Parents of Hearing Children. Last week I discussed Deaf Parent Teacher Confrences, which is one element of collaboration. Collaboration is the key aspect of communication and success for families. Families and school personnel should work together not only to benifit the child, but to benifit the whole entire family http://codadiva.com/

Deaf Parents of Hearing Children Survey

I found this interesting video of a Deaf parent of hearing children. She was conducting a survey on different issues that thier children may have with having deaf parents. The video was interesting for me because I was trying to understand what she was signing throughout the video. I read the comments and alot of them gave me an idea of what she was saying. The comments were interesting because they were so diverse. One girl was a child of Deaf Parents. She said its hard finding music and other people who understand her situation. The second comment was from a wife of a man who has two deaf parents. She stated that he learned how to sign before he learned how to speak. The link is listed below. I am interested to discuss what she is signing in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfw94CRvT7E After finding this video I wanted to see if there was any actual footage of Deaf Parents interacting with thier hearing children.I found this video of a Hearing little girl and her Deaf mother. They were signing about a pet fish. It was really cool to see this video because it showed the power of sign language. The little girl was able to communicate with her mother without speaking. I found it amazing that the little girl was mouthing the words while she signed. I think the little girl was signing just as good as her deaf mother , if not better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkgghPZtCxQ