THE HEARING MOTHER OF A DEAF CHILD: TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING HER EXPERIENCE OF MOTHERING (HANDICAPPED).
Item
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Title
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THE HEARING MOTHER OF A DEAF CHILD: TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING HER EXPERIENCE OF MOTHERING (HANDICAPPED).
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Identifier
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AAI8423107
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identifier
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8423107
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Creator
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STEMP, SARAH.
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Contributor
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I. H. Paul
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Date
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1984
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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This study is an exploration of the experience of mothering for twelve hearing mothers of young deaf children. It suggests that many hearing mothers of deaf children may feel deprived of being able to fully "feed" their child since they are unable to give of themselves through use of voice--in words, sound and song--with the assurance that their communication is received and understood. The proposition is advanced that in response to this frustration many of these mothers are likely to experience a pull towards developing compensatory behavior with their child around the actual feeding of food.;Through evaluating the data from a small sample of hearing mothers who for the most part did not use sign language, and whose children had already been identified by an independent source as having serious eating problems, the study constitutes a preliminary step towards investigating the possibility of a relationship between a mother's need to talk and the development of a feeding disturbance with her deaf child. Discussion is organized around the hypothesis that eating-disordered deaf children (of hearing parents) have mothers for whom talking is a central need. For the twelve mothers evaluated, degree of need to talk was assessed through three measures: teacher-ratings of mothers' talkativeness over time, clinician-ratings of mother-interviews, and the mothers' own self-report.;Results show the study mothers as a group to have a significantly higher need to talk than other mothers of deaf children who had no feeding disturbance. Interview material which reflected associations between feeding and restoration of the deaf child's hearing and speech is discussed. Evidence is cited which illustrates ways in which the mothers' preoccupation with feeding appeared to be an attempt to substitute for the missing and longed-for verbal aspect of mothering. Various other issues such as the contribution of a maternal eating-problem history and the impact of time of diagnosis of the child's deafness upon subsequent symptom formation are considered. Some final comments regarding contrasting models of mothering, in general, and of mothering a child who is "different," in particular, are included.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
