Hints and Devices for Parents Who are Deaf

There is a real lack of visual resource materials which are closed captioned, and there are few childbirth and parenting courses available with interpreters or real-time conversion. Therefore, parents with hearing loss are at a disadvantage in obtaining information and formulating questions related to the parenting role.

As well, parents who are deaf may experience a barrier in their relationship with health professionals. The invisibility of their deafness seems to disorient many healthcare providers and can result in a quick termination of contact, or inadequate answers to questions.

Plan ahead and search for healthcare professionals (such as a childbirth educator, obstetrician, nurse, midwife or pediatrician) who will be sensitive to possible communication difficulties.

Ask for written material, videotapes with captions, and lists of resources on childbirth and parenting.

If told, "Don’t worry," INSIST that your questions be answered.

Convey your preference for methods of communication (e.g. interpreter, lipreading, writing, gesturing, signals) in childbirth classes or the doctor’s examination room.

Convey to health professionals your preferences for care, which may include: - a night light in the hospital room;
- use of transparent face masks in the delivery room for lipreading;
- presence of an interpreter or other person in the delivery room;
- audiologic testing of the baby after birth.

A common concern of the caregiver who is deaf is hearing the baby cry. Sound-operated devices can convert sounds picked up from a microphone unit placed in the baby’s room and visually flash them through the whole house if necessary. A variety of visual signals
can be provided to suit the individual, depending on the ingenuity of those technical experts involved.

SOUND-ACTIVATED VISUAL ALARM AND READING LAMP
This device will flash off and on when triggered by sound. The caregiver can learn to distinguish, from the pattern of flashes, the baby’s sounds (e.g. singing or crying) and sounds from other sources (e.g. a passing airplane).

A superior signal system to the constant flashing signal is a light that follows the temporal pattern of the sound. It makes it possible to distinguish the intensity of the sound (e.g. baby crying loudly). A rehabilitation engineer can make such a device.

WAKE-UP FLASHING/VIBRATING ALARM CLOCK
A flashing-light or vibrating alarm clock wakes the caregiver in the morning or during the night for feeding the baby. The vibrating version is placed under the pillow or mattress.

This information is excerpted from: "Parenting with a Disability: Assistive Devices and Adaptations for Child Care," by Elaine Carty, Tali Conine, Leah Dobell, Angela Holbrook and Chris Seminuck. Future issues of ABILITIES will highlight more parenting devices and ideas obtained from this publication.

For more information, contact: Elaine Carty, Associate Professor, the Childbearing and Parenting Program for Women with Disabilities/Chronic Illnesses, c/o School of Nursing, University of British Columbia. Phone: (604) 822-7444; fax: (604) 822-7466; e-mail: carty@ nursing.ubc.ca.