Hanah International Foundation

Parent support

Special attention for families with very young children

Neonatal screening asks for special diagnostics, contacts with parents, working methods, materials and facilities.

We can’t simply transfer our (pre)school practices into the young families: parents have very special needs as the very young children do.

In the Chernivtsi meetings the psychologists Jeanne Berkelmans , explained how difficult it is for young parents to hear the diagnosis of severe hearing loss.

But also the family consultants experience those special needs. And in the same presentations Jeanne told about the way parents and professionals choose together the things they see as the most important in the family support of families with very young children.

The main things parents demand is in the first place: action. Hearing aids, sign language, contacts with the medical specialist, the audiologist. And for the consultants the most important was the time the parents need to get aware of the situation, to learn to cope with it.

As a result of a Q-sort (parents/consultants choose out of a series of pronouncements per item the three most important) the next table was made:

the highest importance = 1, the lowest importance  = 5

It seems that talking about the grief and the stress for parents is less important then for the consultants. But still it will be the practice that parents meet all kind of feelings, and uncertainties. Because it is difficult to believe that it happened to their child, especially when noting can be noticed.

Professionals who deal with families will meet all kind of different reactions.  They should been instructed  and build up experience in these matters. For that purpose it is good to bundle the stories of parents and consultants, completed with the theoretical backgrounds and practical exercises for the family worker.

Parents in the Viataal research group, The Netherlands, obviously did find  very important to learn to use sign language. Normal lessons of sign language, aimed at full communication with deaf children are not appropriate for this. The visual communication with babies and very young children needs a special approach. Much more aimed at contact parents have during the care routines and interactive contacting.

In addition to these instructions also specific meetings of parents together with their babies can help them to optimize their interaction. It often is very small details that make an essential difference in the quality and the success of communication.

Besides these meetings also meetings of parents and specialists of various origins can be effective. Parents often have a lot of question that they can not express in a one-to-one conversation. When they are together as group of parents it is easier to develop vague feelings into clear thoughts and questions.

One of the main problems on information is that in general all kind of individual organizations and firms develop information materials. Often with different aims and sometimes confusing details. Since  an Information Centre  comes into being it should be interesting to provide this centre with all kind of available information. That way not only the most frequent asked questions can be made up, also the best information can be bundled.

Besides parents, also a growing group of  Daycare centers, kindergartens and similar organizations need information. More and more the will be confronted with children with special needs. Co-operation  can be  very fruitful.

In all kind of research is proven that support realized before the age of 6 month has a great impact on the development of language in the deaf child. Also it enhances the involvement of the whole family in the interaction with the child. This is of great importance for a balanced development of the whole child.