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Development of parent resources for families of deaf children
About the project
We are conducting a study to understand parents’ experiences of having a baby or young child with either mild or unilateral deafness. Unilateral deafness means someone has a hearing loss in only one ear. We would like to understand what kind of information parents need and what it’s like for parents to make decisions for their baby or young child. This study is funded by the National Deaf Children’s Society.
November 2024
We have finished interviewing parents and we have released the first episode of our podcast!
Our podcast series is called Little ears, big challenges: navigating mild and unilateral deafness in children. A diagnosis of mild or unilateral deafness in a child comes with unique challenges and uncertainties. You can hear us talk to parents about their children and their experiences of mild or unilateral deafness, and young people and adults who have grown up with mild or unilateral deafness.
In this first episode of Little Ears, Big Challenges: Navigating Mild and Unilateral Deafness in Children, we introduce you to the voices of parents, young people and adults who feature in our series. We’ll meet parents who open up about what mild or unilateral deafness means for their children and the impact it has on their day to day lives. You’ll also hear how parents approach explaining mild or unilateral deafness to friends and family. You can listen to the podcast here:
Little ears, big challenges – episode 1 transcript
January 2024
We have already interviewed a number of parents and we are now particularly interested to hear from parents whose child is age 0-4 years old and has been identified through newborn hearing screening as having either mild or unilateral deafness/hearing loss (either temporary or permanent) who have any of the following experiences:
- Families with a child with mild deafness/hearing loss in both ears.
- Families where English is not their first or primary language (an interpreter can be provided).
- Families with more than one child.
If you would like to share your experience, you can fill in the form for prospective participants and we will be in touch with more information so that you can choose to participate or not. If you do participate, we will find a convenient time to do an interview of an hour with you. This interview will be online and you will receive a voucher to thank you for your time and participation.
Get involved
If you are interested in taking part in our project, please click here and fill in your details. We’ll then get in touch with more information. Alternatively, you can email our researcher, Jamila Dorner jamila.dorner@ucl.ac.uk.
Meet the team
Click here to find out more about our research team
Project progress – May 2023
We have interviewed a number of mums so far. Several of our participants have highlighted the importance of this research, listening to the experience of parents and ensuring that their voices matter when it comes to making decisions for their child. Some comments from the interviews have been:
‘Thank you so much. It’s been a lovely interview. Very lovely!’
‘It’s good you’re doing this research because it’s good to make your own decision but it’s quite hard to make a decision for someone else, even if it’s a baby.’
We are continuing to recruit and we would love to hear from dads about their experiences! Fill in the form for prospective participants and we’ll be in touch with more information.