Partners in Education: Issues and Trends from the 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf

Early Intervention with Deaf Children and Their Families: “Why, Sometimes I’ve Believed as Many as Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast”

Strand3:EarlyIntervention EarlyInterventionwithDeafChildren andTheirFamilies “Why,SometimesI’veBelievedasManyasSixImpossible ThingsBeforeBreakfast” Alys Young In Lewis Carroll’sThrough the Looking Glassthe White Queen reminds Alice that it takes practice to believe impossible things and recommends a tough regime: “There’s no use trying,” [Alice] said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” (Carroll, 1887) For many years deaf children’s development and potential were often seen in a similar manner: It was important for parents and professionals to believe impossible things of them because there would always be those exceptional deaf children who did achieve age-appropriate language, who became successful adults, and who, against the odds, forged their way in the world on equal terms with their hearing peers. Certainly when I first became professionally involved with deaf children, believing the impossible in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary was vital. It helped to motivate hearing families to do their best for their deaf children (where “best” was often seen as committed hard work); it challenged the overwhelming culture of low expectations for deaf children; it helped us not accept that the language deprivation 75 76 Alys Young and the language deficit that so many deaf children experienced had to be the norm. Believing impossible things was akin to resistance in the face of the many barriers deaf children would face in achieving their optimum potential. Then over time, I, like many others, have seen “impossible things” move from being articles of belief to becoming realities that are taking shape. This chapter offers a brief critical review of the “six impossible things (before breakfast)” that are changing the landscape of early intervention with deaf children and families today. However, as each of these becomes established, it spawns its own new version of impossible things to believe in, or indeed to protest against, which in turn begins to set the agenda for future and further developments in early intervention. Early Identification Parents of deaf children born in countries or regions where universal newborn hearing screening is established face a very different early experience of deafness in their family than that of previous generations. Parents are likely to know their baby is deaf in the first few weeks of life, in comparison with a previous average age of diagnosis of around 26 months (Davis et al., 1997). Identification occurs as part of a routine medical process that is done to the newborn (Luterman, 2001), whereas in the past it was very common for parents’ own observations of and concerns about their children’s development to be integral to the identification process (Gregory, 1976; Luterman & Kurtzer-White, 1999). Early intervention begins almost immediately and simultaneously with parents getting to know their new child. These changed circumstances regarding the timing and process of identification have raised new questions about the impact on hearing parents’ adjustment to the usually unexpected event of having a deaf child (Kurtzer-White & Luterman, 2003; Young, 2010). A key advantage of the swift identification of childhood deafness is the erasure of unnecessary anxiety that many parents experienced in the past when they suspected that their child might be deaf but had to struggle to achieve a clear confirmation (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing, 2007). However, there is no strong evidence that early identification enables hearing parents to resolve more quickly the feelings of grief or shock they might experience on learning their child is deaf. Rather, parents describe a complex and Early Intervention with Deaf Children 77 challenging emotion of simultaneously experiencing loss and distress while also being pleased to know so early that their child is deaf (because needs can be met, adjustments can be made, and services can intervene) (Young & Tattersall, 2007). Although evidence universally points to parental support for early identification (Baringer & Mauk, 1997; Fitzpatrick et al., 2007; Luterman & Kurtzer-White, 1999; Watkin, Beckwin, & Baldwin, 1995; Young & Andrews, 2001), a question remains as to how early and whether for some parents that determination might be too early. Studies have demonstrated that, for some parents, knowing early creates a welcome sense of extra time for them to get used to the idea of having a deaf child before launching into a host of new activities, experiences, and intervention. For others, knowing...