Parental Conceptualizations of Autism and Deafness in British Deaf Children

Alys Young; Emma Ferguson-Coleman; Barry Wright; Ann Le Couteur

doi:10.1093/deafed/enz002

Parental Conceptualizations of Autism and Deafness in British Deaf Children

Alys Young, Emma Ferguson-Coleman, Barry Wright, Ann Le Couteur

The Hull York Medical School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The co-occurrence of childhood deafness and autism raises complex challenges for diagnosis and family support. In this article, we explore with hearing and Deaf parents their observations of the interaction between deafness and autism and identify how the intersections of deafness and autism are conceptualized in everyday life. Eight parents participated (two of whom were Deaf BSL users) in semi-structured interviews in either BSL or spoken English. Data analysis was underpinned by a phenomenological approach in the hermeneutic tradition. Findings are discussed in terms of parents' perceptions of the relevance of deafness to their understanding of autism for their particular child, the effects of autism on sign and spoken language development and the relationship between deafness and autism in terms of their own and others' attributions of their children's characteristics. The significance of the findings for parental contributions' to diagnostic assessment and the tailoring of family support are considered.

Original language	English
Number of pages	9
Journal	Journal of deaf studies and deaf education
Early online date	6 Mar 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enz002
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 6 Mar 2019

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details

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10.1093/deafed/enz002

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Cite this

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abstract = "The co-occurrence of childhood deafness and autism raises complex challenges for diagnosis and family support. In this article, we explore with hearing and Deaf parents their observations of the interaction between deafness and autism and identify how the intersections of deafness and autism are conceptualized in everyday life. Eight parents participated (two of whom were Deaf BSL users) in semi-structured interviews in either BSL or spoken English. Data analysis was underpinned by a phenomenological approach in the hermeneutic tradition. Findings are discussed in terms of parents' perceptions of the relevance of deafness to their understanding of autism for their particular child, the effects of autism on sign and spoken language development and the relationship between deafness and autism in terms of their own and others' attributions of their children's characteristics. The significance of the findings for parental contributions' to diagnostic assessment and the tailoring of family support are considered.",

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