2018 Volume 59 Issue 3 Pages 245-250
After a young infant is diagnosed with hearing loss in newborn hearing screening etc., support of parents in accepting their child's disability is important. In this study, we show the progress of 3 cases (involving 2 sets of parents) of parental problems caused by early detection of hearing loss at age 0, and report on support of parents from the standpoint of speech-language-hearing therapists. Case 1 and case 2 are siblings. The parents were distressed when both siblings were found to have a hearing loss, but with support from a speech-language-hearing therapist from an early stage, interaction with the patient parent association, and solid support from family and friends, active involvement between the parents and their children became possible, and language acquisition has progressed smoothly. In Case 3, the same support as in the previous 2 cases initially was insufficient to enable acceptance of their child's disability, preventing progress in training carried out in the home. However, once home training reached a stable level of involvement, the volume of vocabulary understood by the child increased. In this case, the parents were greatly upset by the diagnosis of early hearing loss, and the issues indicated in previous reports were confirmed. These cases suggest that support to enable parents of young children with hearing disabilities to accept their situation requires multifaceted and detailed guidance as well as evaluation of the quality of family relationships by a speech-language-hearing therapist from an early stage.
