How To Communicate With A Deaf Child
If you are the parent of a deaf child, then you know how important it is to communicate with your child. There are several ways to communicate with your child and none are more effective than the other. What is most important when communicating with your child is that your communication is natural and comfortable.
Schools for the deaf define the different modes of communication with a deaf child as raising your child with speech or raising your child with sign language. Parents who have a child that has been diagnosed with hearing impairment need to choose which type of language they want to teach their child, or they can combine the two.
If you choose to communicate with your child through lip reading, then your child will learn how to communicate with you by looking at your lips in order to decipher what your are saying to him or her. If you decide to communicate with your child through sign language, then you will communicate with your child through a set of signs that are formed by the hands.
Schools for the deaf encourage parents to keep the following tips in mind when communicating with their hearing impaired child:
Obtain your child's attention before you speak to them by a gentle touch on the arm or shoulder. Establish eye contact. Face your child directly so they can lip read what you are saying. Speak as clearly as possible in a natural way and at a moderate pace. Over-exaggerating mouth movements will make lip reading more difficult. Don't shout. Make sure your mouth is visible. Use short and simple sentences. Give instructions one step at a time. Avoid abrupt topic changes and explain when you are changing the topic. If your child does not understand what you said, try to rephrase your sentence. Use a lot of gestures, visual cue, facial expression and body language to support what you have said. If you cannot communicate what you are trying to say, then write the message down. Check that your child understood what you said by asking for feedback. Realize that your child can understand less when he or she is tired or ill.
Most importantly, you must understand that deaf children are just like children that can hear. They love to get attention and they love to communicate with others. You must always pay the same amount of attention to a deaf child as you would with a hearing child. Also, try to remain calm when talking to your child even though you may feel a little uneasy in the beginning. Realize that being nervous is a normal reaction and it will eventually subside once you become familiar with communicating with a deaf child.
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For more information about schools for the deaf visit http://www.stjohns.org.uk/
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