Deaf parent

[Jaymee812]

Hello,

My husband is partially deaf, he wears hearing aids and when he wears these he can hear quite well if someone's speaking with him/ in the room with him. He's 27 and fears his hearing is deteriorating which he worries a lot about.

Our baby girl is turning 1 shortly and id like to know if there are any baby groups or classes in the Essex area for deaf parents/kids that we can attend. I would like for myself and baby to learn sign language and also like for my husband to meet others parents in similar situations.

Im not sure if this is the right place to post but thank you xx

Have you checked out The Royal Association for Deaf People? They may be able to point you in the right direction for support and contact with other deaf parents. I'd like to hope they could at least give you information on learning BSL as a family

I know it's not going to help your husband meet other deaf parents like himself, but would attending a local baby signing class be of any interest in the interim? You could all learn some basic signs together whilst you waited for more specific help and guidance from local charities etc potentially?

Sadly I don't live local to Essex but didn't want to read and run. I hope you find the support you're looking for

Not all baby sign classes use BSL, some use mackaton and I was really confused at Tots Play because of reason they use ASL.

We are in the same situation with 2 dc , 3.5 and 1.5 - DH is 35 and is the same as your dp, we are in Cambridge.

@hormonesorDHbeingadick That's very true I took my son to Makaton classes rather than BSL ones in my local area. It's just a case of doing your research isn't it, like any activity you want to go to. I went to one group once where they used a combination of Makaton, BSL and ASL. That was confusing for everybody and it just didn't work.

I think the baby signing classes are generally not aimed at the deaf, but at parents who want to sign with their kids before they learn to speak.

In your context, your family would probably end up using SSE more than BSL. That is Sign Supported English, which is where you speak in English sentences and sign at the same time. BSL (British Sign Language) has it's own grammar, so the snetences are not the same as English.

Contact the Royal Society as posted above, they should be able to help you.

www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/

Try the above for advice and support. The advice above re Makaton is excellent.

My aunt who was a huge part of my life growing up was profoundly deaf and brought up four children plus me a lot of the time. My MIL is also profoundly deaf and brought up five children. Both were excellent involved parents, I'm sure your DH is as well.

Oh, meant to say SSE uses BSL signs.

A friend of mine is bi-lingual English and BSL. I say that because both her parents were profoundly deaf, so they used sign language, she grew up using signs as her first language, and then learnt English