Child of deaf adult

A child of Deaf adult, often known by the acronym "CODA", is a person who was raised by one or more Deaf parents or guardians. Millie Brother coined the term and founded the organization CODA,[1] which serves as a resource and a center of community for children of Deaf adults. Many CODAs are bilingual, speaking both an oral and a sign language (in the United States this is commonly ASL), and bicultural, identifying with both deaf and hearing cultures. CODAs must navigate the border between the deaf and hearing worlds, serving as liaisons between their deaf parents and the hearing world in which they reside.[2] Ninety percent of children born to Deaf adults can hear normally,[3] leading to the occurrence of a significant and widespread community of CODAs around the world. The acronym KODA (Kid of Deaf Adult) is sometimes used to refer to CODAs under the age of 18.

CODA communicating with parents using video technology


Potential challenges facing hearing CODAs

Hearing CODAs frequently feel caught between two cultures, in a situation similar to that of many second-generation immigrants. As with second-generation immigrants, their parents frequently struggle to communicate in the majority (spoken) language, while CODAs are usually fluent bilinguals.

This dynamic can lead CODAs to act as interpreters for their parents, which can be especially problematic when a child CODA is asked to interpret messages that are cognitively or emotionally inappropriate for their age, such as a school-aged child explaining a diagnosis of a serious medical condition to their Deaf parent.

In addition, CODAs are often exposed to prejudice against their family. Many people may assume that the entire family is Deaf because they are all signing, and therefore make little effort to prevent a CODA hearing the negative comments they make in that family's presence. Deaf parents may not adequately understand that while a Deaf person can look away or close their eyes, a hearing person cannot chose to ignore hurtful words so easily.

There are also some challenges CODAs face that second-generation immigrants do not face. In particular, many Deaf parents hope for a Deaf child. As a result, the discovery that their child is hearing can elicit an emotional reaction analogous to that of hearing parents discovering their child is deaf.

A CODA's hearing status is usually discovered in early infancy, when the child is seen to react to sources of noise outside their field of view. While many Deaf parents either do not grieve or overcome this grief before the child is old enough to notice, unresolved grief over the child's hearing status can damage parent-child relationships, leaving the child feeling unwanted or 'not good enough'.

Discordant hearing status can also pose practical problems. Deaf and hearing people differ in visual attention patterns, with Deaf people being more easily distracted by movement in peripheral vision.[4] Deaf parents often instinctively use such movement to attract their child's attention, which can lead to difficulties engaging in joint attention with hearing toddlers.[5] Parental sensitivity to child cues modulates this effect, with highly sensitive parents being more able to adjust to a child's differences from them.

Support organizations

Millie Brother established the organization CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) in 1983 as a non-profit organization for the hearing sons and daughters of deaf parents.[6] CODA’s first annual conference took place in 1986 in Fremont, California.[7] The conferences have grown, taking on an international status with attendees hailing from around the world. CODA aims to raise awareness about the unique experiences and issues of growing up between these two cultures and provide a forum for CODAs to discuss these shared problems and experiences with other CODAs.[8] Regardless of the spoken and sign languages used, CODA believes that these feelings and experiences that derive from the binary relationship of the two divergent cultures are universal amongst CODAs. CODA provides educational opportunities, promotes self-help, organizes advocacy efforts, and serves as a resource for CODAs raised in both signing and nonsigning environments . Since its founding, CODA, which is currently based in Santa Barbara, CA, has attracted between five to six hundred members and has five chapters around the country.[9]

There are support groups for deaf parents who may be concerned about raising their hearing children, as well as support groups for adult CODAs. One organization, KODAheart [10] provides educational and recreational resources for Deaf parents and hearing children through an educational website and pop-up camps. There are also several camps established for KODAs.

There is a UK organisation, namely CODA UK & Ireland.

Notable CODAs

Fictional CODAs

Related Deaf Culture acronyms for identifying family members

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Robert Hoffmeister, Open Your Eyes: Border Crossings by Hearing Children of Deaf Parents: The Lost History of Codas (University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 207.
  2. ↑ Kerri Clark, Communication & Parenting Issues in Families with Deaf Parents and Hearing Children, http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/coda.htm, (April 2003)
  3. ↑ Glenn Collins, The Family; Children of Deaf Share Their Lives, http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/15/style/the-family-children-of-deaf-share-their-lives.html, (December 1986).
  4. ↑
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ About CODA, http://coda-international.org/blog/about/ (2012).
  7. ↑ CODA events
  8. ↑ About CODA, http://coda-international.org/blog/about/ (2012).
  9. ↑ Glenn Collins, The Family; Children of Deaf Share Their Lives, http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/15/style/the-family-children-of-deaf-share-their-lives.html, (December 1986).
  10. ↑ http://www.kodaheart.org
  11. ↑ NorCal | Services for Deaf & Hard of Hearing, Inc
  12. ↑ Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, p. 413 (PDF)
  13. ↑ Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, p. 414 (PDF)

External links

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