Empowering families
Deaf Child Worldwide believes that families should have access to all the skills and information they need to support their deaf child.
Families play a major role in the development of their children, but for deaf children they are even more important. The early years of children’s lives are the most important for learning communication skills and language and young children spend more time with their families than with anyone else.
Over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who have no experience of deafness and who may have very low expectations of their deaf child.
With our partners, we provide full and impartial information to families. This helps them to overcome stigma and negative social beliefs. It also helps families to give their child basic language and find the best local health and education services.
"I never realised my son had so much to say..."
In Kenya, we supported families to learn Kenyan Sign Language and to learn about deafness. This helped them communicate with their children for the first time.
Combined with information about deafness and available education and health services, this transformed the way families thought about their children.
