The medical community does at this time, and will continue to do so as long as they are a medical community, see deafness from a patholocial perspective. Very, very few see the deaf individual from a hoslistic perspective, and therefore, their focus is narrowed to the deafness, not the development of the child as a whole.
When a diagnosis comes in, the parents, as well, bcome focused on the deafness, because they see that diagnosis as being the singular event responsible for changing their idea of what life is. It is threatening on many levels. Add to that the insecurity of not knowing what to do with a deaf child, of looking for answers, and the very parental need to do away with that which threatens our offspring's well being and happiness. We, as hearing parents, start off feeling that the diagnosis has threatened out child's well being and happiness, and therefore, set about doing anything we can to make it go away and leave our child alone. Been there, done that, and experience has shown me that this is a universal experience.
We need not just child advocacy at this stage, but parental advocacy, as well. Parents need to be given permission to walk through the myriad of emotions they will experience instead of being pushed to make decisions before they fully understand the problem. Parents need to be told that it is okay to be angry, to be frightened, to feel that life is unfair. Then they need help in understanding that those are their feelings, and should not be projected onto their child, or onto those that can be of assistance to their child. Parents need advocacy to deal with their issues so that they will not forever be operating from a "OMG! I have to fix this for my child!" perspective. The deafness doesn't need to be fixed. The child doesn't need to be fixed. What needs to be fixed is the parental attitude, often very deeply buried and denied, about having a deaf child. So yes, I am a firm believer in advocacy for parents, as well. I would like to see every hearing parent who places a deaf child in early intervention receiving counseling for themselves. Help them focus not so much on what is wrong with the child, but what is wrong with the way they perceive that child based on earlier experiences of stereotypes that have nothing to do with the child standing before them.
And there is added benefit to advocacy for parents. The more parents are advocated for, and helped to understand themselves and their feelings, and how those affect the decisions they make for their child, and the consequences the child is ultimately responsible for, the less we need to advocate for the kids. The parents will be able to do it.
