support for parents and caregivers 181
Understanding your emotions
Parents, other family members,
and caregivers will react to the
emotions they feel in different
ways. It is best to let each person
feel the emotions in his or her
own way, without judgment.
Touli feels angry
that the baby is
deaf, but I feel
sad all the time.
Emotions such as worry,
loneliness, or fear will become less
strong as time passes. You will come to realize that a child who cannot
hear well has the same needs for love, affection, discipline, and learning
as other children.
What if she can’t
learn like the other
children?
These emotions will return to
you at important times in your
child’s life, like when she starts
school. This does not mean
something is wrong. It just
means you are going through
another period of adapting to
her deafness.
These strong emotions can help
you take action to make your
child’s life better. For example,
loneliness may encourage you
to reach out to deaf adults in your community or to other families with
deaf children. Anger may give you energy to help organize other parents
to persuade the government to provide education for deaf children.
When you accept that your child cannot hear well, you can begin to
love your child as she is. And, like all children, she will give you much
support, pleasure, and joy!
Look at how much fun they
are having! How did I ever
think Delphine would be a
burden to our family?
Helping Children Who Are Deaf (2004)