Perceptions of the Oldest Hearing Child of Deaf Parents: On Interpreting, Communication, Feelings, and Role Reversal

Sixteen hearing children of deaf parents were matched with sixteen hearing children of hearing parents on age, school grade, sex, parent education level, and socioeconomic status. All children in the study were the oldest in the family. The children completed a questionnaire and a structured interview. Both the questionnaire and the interview investigated the issues of feelings toward parents, communication with parents, interpreting, and role reversal. The results indicated no significant difference between the two groups on the feelings, communication, and role-reversal scales. A significant difference was found between the groups on the interpreting scale as well as on the responses to the interview situations. The ages of the children and the degrees to which the parents relied on them to interpret appeared to have a strong influence on the children's feelings toward parents, communication with parents, and views on role reversal.