Life Story of a Daughter with Hearing Loss Through Her Father's Eyes

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the life story of a father with normal hearing who has an adult child with hearing loss and to understand the effects of the father on the life and developmental periods of his child with hearing loss. The participant in the study was a father with an adult child who has congenital, very advanced sensory-neural hearing loss. The study was designed by utilizing the life-history method, one of the qualitative research methods. Research data were collected through semi-structured interviews, documents, photographs and reflective researcher diaries. The collected data were analyzed with the inductive method. The findings were interpreted within the framework of nine main themes: the family in which the father was raised, the pregnancy period of his wife, the diagnosis period, the pre-school period, the primary school period, the secondary and high school period, the adulthood period, the e-Kpss/business life and the difficulties encountered after the cochlear implant surgery. Findings of the research indicated that the family in which the participant father was raised had an effect on his own perceptions of paternity. The father accepted his daughter's hearing loss more quickly, this behavior of the father increased his bond with the child with hearing loss and caused the father to have the main say over the child's developmental stages and academic skills. He stated that his wish as a father is to have more verbal communication with children with hearing loss. Although the findings of the study cannot be generalized to the entire population of fathers and children with hearing loss, it is thought that these findings will shed light on theories and further research.