Families with Deaf Children

This project aims to improve deaf children's and their families' quality of life, by allowing parents to learn more about deafness and exchange ideas about and experiences of parenting a deaf child. The project will encourage parents to set up a registered association for families of deaf children in the Oradea region.

Recipient:: Special School No 3
Country:: Romania
Project contact:: Ioana Florica Drugaş (Special School No 3)
Start date:: 15 January 2007
End date:: 15 January 2008
Total budget:: 25,910.00 ROL (�4,897.92)
Beneficiary type:: Parents, Young deaf people, School aged children
Project type:: Deaf awareness, Information materials

Summary:

Families of deaf children in the Oradea region benefit from very limited support and very little information. This project aims to enhance communication between Special School Number 3 and parents of its deaf pupils as well as communication within families and between parents.

A series of workshops on specific topics relating to childhodd deafness and parenting a deaf child as well as parent meetings will be carried out. As parents get to know each other, they will be encouraged to claim ownership of project actvities and establish a parents association. They will also publish a booklet summarising the parenting tips they have shared to reach out to more parents of deaf children.

Aim:

This project aims to

provide parents with information about deafness and opportunities for their deaf child
provide parents with a space to discuss common concerns and shared experiences
establish a parents association
provide deaf children with skills for their future
enhance communication between parents and Special School Number 3
increase the number of deaf students at Special School Number 3.

Beneficiaries:

Initial group of 15 parents of deaf children studying at Special School No 3 (11 mothers and 4 fathers from 30 to 50 years old) already identified. This number will increase after the project is advertised.
Initial group 19 deaf children from 8 to 17 years old and studying at Special School No 3. This number will increase after the project is advertised.

Activities:

Publicity and networking (first two months of projects)

This activity will involve a meeting at Special School No 3 presenting the project to parents, staff and members of the community. This will be followed by articles in local newspapers and TV spots interpreted in Romanian Sign Language (RSL). A webpage will also be created to promote the project.
The project team will also produce posters and leaflets to advertise the project locally as well as meet with representatives from key local institutions.

Workshops and parent meetings (over 7 months)

One theme will be chosen every month (such as "My child - an inexhaustible source of surprises", "Learning to communicate with my deaf child", etc.) and will run through the 2 or 3 workshops for parents as well as the 2 workshops for deaf children (these will sometimes run simultaneously). A psychologist will act as a mediator for these workshops.
Parents will gradually get to know each other and feel confident to use workshops as a space to share experiences and share parenting tips.
As deaf parents will be participating the workshops, workshops will be interpreted in RSL.
Special School No 3 will encourage parents to claim ownership of activities, register their own association and liaise with other parents associations around the country.
Vocational workshops for deaf children and young deaf people will provide them with training in interior design, cooking, SL, painting, etc. These workshops will be coordinated by a teacher from the school with input from local professionals.

Production of materials and evaluation

Production of From us to you with useful information about deafness. This publication will be produced by parents, teachers and professionals and will include parenting tips from other parents.
Evaluation of project activities and outcomes.

Achievements:

This project has now completed. It has been a success and has had a big impact on the lives of participating deaf children, families, teachers and staff and members of the local community.

Project Outcomes

Through project activities deaf children increased their self-esteem. The project manager reports

"Deaf children opened up and were able to communicate with people they didn't know with more confidence. By participating in activities, they discovered qualities they didn't know they have and got to know themselves better. They stopped feeling different and isolated because hearing children were also involved in activities. By communicating more effectively together and interacting, both hearing and deaf children were able to understand why they were sometimes misunderstood"

Parents and family members of deaf children are more aware of the needs of their deaf child and have a better understanding of their relationship with their deaf child. They are also able to communicate more effectively.

"This project was unique because we worked with parents, not only with children".

A registered parents association has been set up and will continue to work, after the end of this SGP project, to improve the services deaf children receive in the Oradea District.
Throughout the project parents have been able to learn from each other's experiences and will continue to do so through the association's activities.

"Parents started to feel like a family inside the support group and noticed they are not the only one facing difficult challenges"

The local community and relevant education stakeholders is increasingly aware of the needs and potential of deaf children.
A publication documenting lessons learnt through the project, parenting tips and individuals parents' experience has been produced.
Staff at Special School No 03 feels better equipped to meet the needs of deaf children and works more collaboratively.

Publicity and networking

A team of teachers from Special School No 3 went around villages and town in the Oradea District to gather information and identify deaf children. As there is no database listing deaf children, the team went to schools, local town halls, medical centres, etc.

This was a great opportunity to distribute leaflets and posters which had been produced to promote the project and the date of the first parents' meeting. Parents also were directly contacted through mailings with details of project activities.

The project was promoted on local TV and radio networks as well as newspapers. Project staff participated in live interviews. This was a very efficient way of promoting parents' meetings and encouraged a number of families to get in touch with project staff.

The project was officially launched at a local theatre on 30 January 2007. 40 people attended (parents, teachers from Oradea University and other schools, local officials) above the team of 45 teachers who have been participating in outreach activities. The launch was successful and many people offered their support to project activities.

Workshops and parent meetings

"The impact of our project on beneficiaries (deaf children and their parents) cannot be expressed in numbers; it reflects in children's and parents' way of thinking, in accepting the hearing loss, in bringing an important contribution to the planning of other activities, in parents' optimism about the future of their children. In a meeting a parent said; "Look into the future and not into the past". Parents already open their souls and express their feelings.

Parents with new-borns [with a] hearing impairment start gaining knowledge about it and understand it. This didn't happen before, because parents didn't have a place to go and learn about this.

So, the project had a great impact, both on the relation between child and parent and the relation pupil and teacher"

Workshops for parents have been carried out successfully. Two or three workshops cover one theme and include activities for participants as well as opportunities for discussion and information sharing. Workshops are coordinated by a psychologist and attended by some teachers from Special School No 3.

One workshop, focused on dealing with emotional challenges parents face when parenting a deaf child. This was a very fruitful workshop, parents shared their personal experiences openly. Parents also found these discussions very useful to question their own dealing mechanisms and highlight positive and negative attitudes and reactions. The facilitator organised a series of games encouraging self-reflexion and sharing of experiences.

25 parents have been participating in a majority of workshops. However, attendance is sporadic and numbers are less than anticipated. This is due to a number of reasons, many families live far from Oradea and find it difficult to come to every session. Other parents have found it difficult to participate in group activities and openly talk about their feelings. Project staff believe this may have deterred some parents from coming more regularly.

A core group of five motivated parents has contributed to the establishment of a parents association with the school's support. This association called Echo is now set up and officially registered. The majority of parents participating in the project have met to discuss to discuss the mission, vision and values of the organisation.

Sign language workshops with deaf children

Eight workshops have taken place for between 15 and 26 children. These workshops have focused on practical skills, interactive games, team games as well as providing children with positive feedback. Workshops are supervised by five volunteer teachers. Activities have included arts and crafts, cooking and decorations. A number of events have also taken place in the school to showcase children's achievements to both parents and community members. Children have also submitted entries to national art competitions.

One workshop was organized for both parents and children. It was organised in the form of a trip to a school for the deaf in Timisoara. 15 children, eight parents and five volunteer teachers participated. This trip was a success, children were able to interact with their peers at the school and parents were able to see what deaf children could achieve through education.

Four workshops around crafts and work have also taken place. Deaf children visited different professionals such as a baker, a dentist, a painter, etc. This was a great way to allow deaf children to access information in a way that is deaf friendly; visually.

"Children are very happy about the activities. It is hard to describe in a few sentences. So are the parents, emotionally involved in the project, confident that services for their children will grow in numbers and quality"

Further information

The Starkey Foundation found out about the project and has been providing bilateral hearing aids for deaf children and Special School No 3

IDCS encouraged Special School No 3 to get in touch with Light into Europe, a member of the IDCS Network. This contact resulted in an exchange visit and the participation of project staff in training activities.

Production of materials and evaluation

This activity was coordinated by the project manager in conjunction with five teachers and nine parents. Members of the team have contributed personal experiences of parenting a deaf child to be included in the From us to you publication. 400 books have been published.

The final event was a huge success. It was preceded by a round up of the project. Teachers and staff involved shared their experience of the project and the impact it has had on the school. A participating mother talked about what the project had meant for her, her family and her relationship with ehr deaf child. The publication From us to you was also launched.