Gestures: Helping Parents Raise their Deaf Child

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Having a Deaf child is usually pushed aside and ignored by parents’ image of a ‘normal’ child. They experience shock, stress, anger, and denial when it comes to raising their child due to their inexperience, unfamiliarity, and little contact with deaf persons. Due to this lack of knowledge, parents tend to base their perceptions on obsolete stereotypes which can greatly affect the development of the child.

My Seniors’ Creative Project (undergraduate thesis), Gestures, is an educational kit that aims to help parents raise their Deaf child, as well as improve how they communicate with each other. The kit contains an interactive language and communication game as well as informational materials about Deafness and child development for families.

The Process

Research and Immersion

The process started with the gathering of data through interviews, books, articles, and research on existing design solutions. I was able to interview parents of Deaf children, SPED (Special Education) schools, and speech pathologists to better understand family dynamics and child development when it came to Deafness.

Insights

The results of the research and interviews show that parents are still unequipped with the information and tools needed to be able to care for their Deaf child. There is still a barrier when it comes to schools’ support towards families and connecting parents to the right resources and professionals. Parents feel stressed when they cannot keep up with their deaf child who has started going to school. The Deaf child is exposed to a bigger environment outside their own home, therefore their imagination broadens and they start to question their surroundings.

Design Intervention

Both parents and the child feel frustrated when they cannot understand what they are trying to say to each other. Instead of seeing deafness as an obstacle, it’s important for both parties to see their interaction as a constant learning process. I decided to conceptualize a game, made for 4-6 year old children and their parents, that would improve their communication and demystify common misconceptions about deafness.

The design intervention for this is a kit, Gestures, that hopes to strengthen the relationship between parents and their Deaf child. It is critical to disseminate and provide all necessary information to hearing parents to properly guide them while raising their deaf child. Besides this, parents also have to do their part by accepting their child and learning about their lives and experiences.

Based on interviews, the kit targets hearing parents, specifically those who have never encountered a deaf individual before. The secondary stakeholders are profoundly Deaf children ages 4 to 6 years old who are already in school. This is also the Initiative vs. Guilt stage, wherein Deaf children may be restricted at this age due to the parents’ control and overprotection.

The Kit

Gestures is similar to the game of charades wherein person A has to guess what person B is trying to say, and no speaking is involved. For the design solution, it uses the method of what is known as total communication—lip/speechreading, writing, sign language, and body/facial expressions. This is for the [hearing] parents and sibling/s to learn how to properly communicate with the Deaf child. The kit contains the following materials:

‘Raising a Deaf child’ handbook:

A booklet that contains information about deafness, child development, common misconceptions, tips, and a directory of organizations they can reach out to. View the whole booklet here.

Flash Cards (Easy, Medium, Hard)

Flash cards which are used as part of the game. The cards include objects for the players to guess based on the what graphic/illustration they see.

Other contents: Writing board, chalk, dice (identifies the type of communication to be used), and instruction manual. Read the full game mechanics here.

Design

Given that the game focuses on Deaf children, the design direction greatly relies on the visuals to ensure it grabs their attention. The kit is fun and educational wherein families can bond, enjoy, and interact with each other in a pressure-free learning environment.

The game uses semiotics and shapes that are colorful and playful, but not so complicated and distracting in order for the child to understand the visuals easily. Since the stakeholders of this project targets preschool children, the
colors of the kit are vibrant and bright to get their attention and increase impact on learning. The palette chosen also relates to feelings of happiness, creativity, vibrancy, youth, communication and energy. To make the words on the cards easier to distinguish, the illustrations are composed of simple geometric lines and shapes.

Testing and Results

The success indicators were measured through a pre-test, post-test, and an evaluation form. Additionally, the child has to list down 5-7 new words learned after playing the game. Parents have expressed how the game has helped them better communicate with their child through the different methods, as well as different ways to cope with their situation. Regarding the cards, the children were attracted by the visuals and able to identify immediately what the word was.

With the kit, parents were more informed about deafness and the implications of their actions, and at the same time became greater advocates for their child. While the parents are learning, the Deaf child too is strengthening their lip reading and sign language skills, which will give them an advantage in school.

• More interviews with speech pathologists and professionals
• Look more into the context of the lives of each family, given that not everyone has access to facilities.
• A simpler way of explaining the mechanics would help the deaf child understand the game better (more visuals)

Thank you!

Gestures was also featured in the BFA Information Design Batch 2018 Thesis Exhibit. This is dedicated to, and was greatly inspired by, my Deaf cousin Angelo, who I grew up with.