A study of conscious perception and change in children of deaf adults (CODA) and deaf parents toward interpretation

Abstract

The questions at the focus of the present study were as follows: 1. What are the cognitive perceptions of children of deaf adults (CODA) and their parents concerning interpretation? 2. How do their perceptions progress with the childs developmental stage? These points were analyzed by applying the Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA). Interview respondents consisted of 25 CODAs and 19 deaf parents, including 15 pairs of real parent and child. The M-GTA results indicated that 27 concepts, 6 categories and 6 sub-categories were obtained from utterance records running to 320,849 letters. The results of semi-structured interviews with CODAs revealed no conscious perception of supporting their parent during childhood; but in adolescence internal conflict emerged, and in adulthood the CODAs understood and accepted the disabilities of their parents. The deaf parents depended on interpretation performed by the CODA in childhood and adolescence, but in adulthood their own independence resulted from nondependency on the CODA. These results suggest that conscious awareness is shared between CODAs and their parents during the CODAs childhood, then this mutual awareness is lost, but ultimately it becomes consistent again. However, there are differences among individuals with respect to this progression.