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RAe H E L 5 TON E AND L Y N NO. 5 T I R LIN G his study compares the impressions that deaf children of deaf parents and deaf children of hearing parents have about their identities as deaf! individuals . Previous studies have shown that deaf children are often ambiva lent about their own identities, perhaps because they have received inadequate or conflicting information from their families or other caregivers about deafness and the deaf community and its cultural values (Benderly, 1980; Erting, 1982; Washabaugh , 1981). Today, however, it is more likely that deaf children of deaf parents will identify themselves without as much ambivalence, because some of the values and attitudes of the deaf awareness movement that began in the 1970s2 may have been shared with the children by their deaf parents. Furthermore, deaf children of deaf parents, who are a part of the deaf community from birth, experience less conflict about their deafness than do deaf children of hearing parents, who may not receive positive information, values, and attitudes toward deafness during their early years (Becker, 1980). In this study, we sought answers to such questions as (1) How aware are individual children about themselves as deaf persons? (2) Are they confident and accepting of their own identities? and (3) How do they define and interpret the terms "deaL" "hard of hearing," "hearing impaired," and "hearing?" We expected that most of the deaf children of deaf parents in our study would express less ambivalence about their identity as deaf people than would the deaf children of hearing parents. It seemed possible to us that, because of their interaction with deaf adults and exposure to deaf culture, the deaf children of deaf parents would accept their deafness more readily than would the deaf children of hearing parents. The deaf children of hearing parents often live exclusively in the "hearing" culture and have minimal contact with deaf role models, a situation that may lead to more identity confusion and less acceptance among members of this group. To test this theory, we devised questions that would show whether deaf children of deaf parents expected to maintain their childhood identity when they became adults and conversely, whether deaf children with hearing parents expected to become hearing themselves as they grew older. 1 The term "deaf" is used in this paper to identify the general population of deaf and hard of hearing children at the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School. These children have a wide range of hearing loss from mild to profound. 2 This movement resulted partly from the Civil Rights movement of the 196Ds, as well as from such technological advances as TDDs and closed captioning of television programs. 50 THE DEAF WAY ~ Deaf Cultures Around the World To summarize, we hoped to explore the world views and the perceptions of both groups of children, to determine how they viewed themselves as individuals and as deaf people. Background A structured interview consisting of thirty-six questions was designed to elicit openended responses from the children using their own communication modes. We videotaped and later analyzed each fifteen-minute interview. This paper will focus only on the students' responses to the questions of self-identification and their definitions of the terms "deat" "hard of hearing," "hearing impaired," and "hearing." We interviewed a total of forty-three students from the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School in Washington, D.C.-fourteen children with deaf parents and twentynine with hearing parents. The children's ages ranged from seven to fifteen years. We included academic classification, age, hearing status of parents, gender, and degree of hearing loss as some of the variables in the study. The breakdown for age, gender, and parental hearing status is shown in Table 1. The Interview: Self-Identification The first interview question asked whether and why the children labelled themselves as "deaf," "hard of hearing," "hearing impaired," or "hearing." Fifty percent of the children with deaf parents and 64 percent of those with hearing parents identified themselves as deaf. Forty-three percent of the children with deaf parents and 28 percent of those with hearing parents claimed that they were hard of hearing. One student chose the category "hearing impaired," but none of the children identified himselflherself as "hearing." One child from each group claimed to be both deaf and hard of hearing. Regardless of parents' hearing status, 60 percent of all the children identified themselves as "deat" while 33 percent said they were "hard of hearing." It is interesting to...

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