At the start of the school year, the Parents’ School and the Hearing Foundation will set up thematic workshops and discussion groups to help parents of deaf or hard of hearing children.
In order to help parents of deaf or hard of hearing children, the‘School for Parents and the Foundation for Hearing will set up thematic workshops and discussion groups. They will be offered free of charge every month from September 2018.
“Being the parent of a deaf child is complicated because you have to know and understand deafness. Hearing connects men to men, it is the basis of communication, of the link with others. It is therefore imperative to build this link on good bases, to make the right choices. The School for parents of deaf or hard of hearing children is intended to be a place of exchange, sharing and information so that each parent can have the support they need “, we explains the president of the Audition Foundation Jean-Pierre Meyers.
“Keeping your place as mom and dad”
The initiative therefore offers workshops entitled Knowing how to be, better accepting deafness or I am the parent of a deaf child, but above all a parent. “Parents should not take the place of health professionals who will accompany their child. You have to keep your place of father, mother and not become an educator,” adds Jean-Pierre Meyers.
In France, people who are deaf or hard of hearing suffer seriously from communication problems. According to deaf and hard of hearing health barometer, they are three times more likely to be in a state of psychological suffering than the rest of the population. As a result, they make three times more suicide attempts than people with no hearing problem, and even when they do not do it, they are five times more likely to admit having had suicidal thoughts in the morning. during the past twelve months.
700 deaf children each year
These acts of self-harm occur in particular in the context of suffering at work. The deaf and hard of hearing are 34% to say they are in a state of psychological distress against 5.4% of the general population. They are also 3.5% to have tried suicide for professional reasons, compared to 0.6% of their colleagues. Only one in ten employees benefits from a modified schedule.
“The progress of science is already there. The young children implanted today have very good results and we strongly believe in the progress of research. One of the Foundation’s flagship projects is, moreover, the creation of an Institute of Audition (an interdisciplinary research center in the neurosciences of hearing) which will open in Paris in a year. But even if deaf children are living better and better in a hearing world, first and foremost they need to be support in the appropriation of their language and their development “, warns Jean-Pierre Meyers accordingly.
Congenital deafness affects one in 1,000 newborns, or 700 deaf children each year. In France, a third of them are fluent in Sign Language. 34% are still inactive, due to the restriction of access to leisure and isolation.
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