Bilingual Deaf and Hearing Families by Barbara Bodner-Johnson

Author:Barbara Bodner-Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press
Published: 2016-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

Reflection for the Crawford Family

The Crawford family welcomed us into their home on a warm Saturday afternoon. Saturdays are busy days for this family, but everyone seemed to be in a relaxed, “day-off” mood as we settled in comfortably around a big picnic table. We realized fairly quickly that the conversation would have to be lively and interesting if we were to keep Billy with us for the duration! We need not have worried; he was an active participant and held his own with his big sister.

Even though Rosaline and her husband felt from day one in Rosa’s life that “something was different about the baby,” it was at two months of age that they learned that their daughter was deaf. This was very early for that time—the 1990s—when newborn hearing screening was not a routine procedure and a child’s difference in hearing status was typically not discovered until much later—typically when the child was fifteen to eighteen months of age. Still, this two or three month period, Rosaline says, was critical to her. During this time she and her husband got to live and bond with their new baby as a baby and to develop a relationship with her without worrying about whether she was or was not hearing, about whether they, as parents, were doing the right thing, and about the many unanticipated decisions they would later have to make.

Rosaline is not alone in her feelings about being glad she had those two months before finding out Rosa was deaf. Today, the good news is that newborn hearing screening makes it possible for parents to know their baby’s hearing status in the first few weeks of their baby’s life, which means they can be referred to comprehensive support and information services. Yet, there is concern that, for some families, knowing early might be too early and may interfere with the bonding process (Yoshinaga-Itano & de Uzcategui, 2001) as Rosaline suggests it might have for her. New parents who are hearing report wishing for a bit more time of not knowing their child is deaf (Kurtzer-White & Luterman, 2003). One mother states that she was grateful for newborn screening and the benefits of getting information early on but also relates that she was “left longing for the pure joy of new motherhood … . I cannot help wishing, still, that I had had just a bit more time … to sing lullabies to Sophia, without worrying about whether or not she could hear them” (Rosner, 2004, p. 21).

On the other hand, knowing this in the very early stages of relationship building with their baby might result in better bonding for some parents; discovering later on that their child is different from what they had thought may result in a break in the relationship (Young & Tattersall, 2007). Over time, practitioners working with families will more fully understand the dilemma that seems to exist now. Despite concerns, it is clear that substantial linguistic and socioemotional developmental advantage is associated with early identification (Yoshinaga-Itano, 2003).

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