A BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: EXPERIENCES OF GROWING UP AS HEARING CHILDREN OF DEAF PARENTS
Abstract
Abstract
More than 90% of deaf parents have hearing children who are often bilingual and bicultural, serving as communication brokers in situations that can be inappropriate for their age and stressful. These children lack recognition as a minority group needing specific support, and due to the lack of research, the aim of this study is to explore the experiences of hearing children raised in families with deaf parents in Serbia. Data were collected through a focus group consisting of six young adults and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings show that taking on a high level of responsibility is a key characteristic of the participants’ childhood, including early involvement in interpreting and assuming a role similar to that of a parent. Participants expressed a need to protect their parents from unpleasant situations, which often stem from stigma and discrimination related to deafness. They reported strong emotional closeness to their parents and highlighted the benefits they gained through early maturation experiences – such as skills valuable in adulthood. Social support during childhood was found to be of great importance, and participants did not blame their parents’ deafness for the more difficult aspects. A consistent finding was that the most meaningful changes would include raising awareness in the community and normalizing deafness.
Keywords: hearing children of deaf adults, CODA, deafness, sign language, interpreting
References
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. The American Psychologist, 55(5), 469–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.5.469
Bishop, M. & Hicks, S. (2005). Orange eyes: Bimodal bilingualism in hearing adults from deaf families. Sign Language Studies, 5(2), 188–230. https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.2005.0001
Buchino, M. A. (1990). Hearing children of deaf parents: A counseling challenge. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 24(3), 207–212. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42868918
Buchino, M. A. (1993). Perceptions of the oldest hearing child of deaf parents: On interpreting, communication, feelings, and role reversal. American Annals of the Deaf, 138(1), 40–45. https://doi.org/10.1353/aad.2012.0598
Dimitrova, R., Musso, P., Naudé, L., Zahaj, S., Solcova, I. P., Stefenel, D., Uka, F., Jordanov, V., Jordanov, E. & Tavel, P. (2017). National collective identity in transitional societies: Salience and relations to life satisfaction for youth in South Africa, Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kosovo and Romania. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 27(2), 150–158.
Filer, R. D. & Filer, P. A. (2000). Practical considerations for counselors working with hearing children of deaf parents. Journal of Counseling & Development, 78(1), 38–43. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2000.tb02558.x
Gee, A., Wright, B., Napier, J., Ackroyd, V., Phillips, H. & Hayes, R. (2021). Lan-guage brokering between deaf signing parents and healthcare professionals. Communication & Medicine, 18(2), 136–152. https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.20385
Ghavami, N., Fingerhut, A., Peplau, L. A., Grant, S. K. & Wittig, M. A. (2011). Test-ing a model of minority identity achievement, identity affirmation, and psy-chological well-being among ethnic minority and sexual minority individuals. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17(1), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022532
Glickman, N. S. & Hall, W. C. (2018). Introduction: Culture and disability. In N. S. Glickman & W. C. Hall (Eds.): Language deprivation and deaf mental health (pp. 1–23). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315166728
Hadjikakou, K., Christodoulou, D., Hadjidemetri, E., Konidari, M. & Nicolaou, N. (2009). The experiences of Cypriot hearing adults with deaf parents in family, school, and society. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 14(4), 486–502. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enp011
Hall, N. & Guery, F. (2010). Child language brokering: Some considerations. Medi-Azioni: Rivista Online di Studi Interdisciplinari su Lingue e Culture, 10(Special Issue), 24–46. University of Bologna. https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/621707/
Harvey, M. A. (1989). Psychotherapy with deaf and hard-of-hearing persons: A systemic model. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hauser, P. C., O’Hearn, A., McKee, M., Steider, A. & Thew, D. (2010). Deaf episte-mology: Deafhood and deafness. American Annals of the Deaf, 154(5), 486–492. https://doi.org/10.1353/aad.0.0120
Heffernan, G. & Nixon, E. (2023). Experiences of hearing children of deaf parents in Ireland. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 28(4), 399–407. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enad018
Jones, E. G. & Dumas, R. E. (1996). Deaf and hearing parents’ interactions with eld-est hearing children. American Annals of the Deaf, 141(4), 278–283. https://doi.org/10.1353/aad.2012.0371
Klimentová, E., Dočekal, V. & Hynková, K. (2017). Hearing children of deaf parents – a new social work client group? European Journal of Social Work, 20(6), 846–857. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2017.1320527
Leigh, I. W., Andrews, J. F., Miller, C. A. & Wolsey, J. L. A. (2023). Deaf people and society: Psychological, sociological and educational perspectives (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Meek, D. R. (2020). Dinner table syndrome: A phenomenological study of deaf in-dividuals’ experiences with inaccessible communication. The Qualitative Re-port, 25(6), 1676–1694. https://doi.org/10.46743/2163715/2020.4203
Moroe, N. & De Andrade, V. (2018). “We were our parents’ ears and mouths:” Re-flecting on the language-brokering experiences of hearing children born to Deaf-parents. South African Journal of Child Health, 12(2b), 75–78. https://doi.org/10.7196/sajch.2018.v12i2b.1499
Napier, J. (2017). Not just child’s play: Exploring bilingualism and language bro-kering as a precursor to the development of expertise as a professional sign language interpreter. In R. Antonini, L. Cirillo, L. Rossato & I. Torresi (Eds.): Non-professional interpreting and translation: State of the art and future of an emerging field of research (pp. 381–410). Amsterdam: Benjamins Transla-tion Library. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.129.19nap
Napier, J. (2021). Sign language brokering in deaf-hearing families. Cham: Pal-grave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67140-2
Nedeljković, M., Vukonjanski, J., Nikolić, M., Hadžić, O. & Šljukić, M. (2018). A comparative analysis of Serbian national culture and national cultures of some European countries by GLOBE project approach. Journal of the Geographical Institute “Jovan Cvijic”, SASA, 68(3), 363–382. https://doi.org/10.2298/IJGI180315002N
Palmer, M., Larkin, M., de Visser, R. & Fadden, G. (2010). Developing an interpreta-tive phenomenological approach to focus group data. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 7(2), 99–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780880802513194
Phinney, J. S. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group ado-lescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 9(1–2), 34–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431689091004
Preston, P. (1994). Mother Father Deaf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rienzi, B. M. (1990). Influence and adaptability in families with deaf parents and hearing children. American Annals of the Deaf, 135(5), 402–408. https://doi.org/10.1353/aad.2012.046
Singleton, J. L. & Tittle, M. D. (2000). Deaf parents and their hearing children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 5(3), 221–236. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/5.3.221
Vaccari, C. & Marschark, M. (1997). Communication between parents and deaf children: Implications for social emotional development. Journal of Child Psy-chology and Psychiatry, 38(7), 793–801. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14697610.1997.tb01597.x
Van den Bogaerde, B., & Baker, A. E. (2016). Children of Deaf Adults. In G. Gertz & P. Boudreault (Eds.): The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia (pp. 118–120). SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483346489.n42
Willig, C. (2008). Introducing qualitative research in psychology: Adventures in theory and method (2nd ed.). Open University Press.