About Silent

Although more than 90 % of deaf children are born to hearing parents, this group often gets overlooked. 

We want to empower families and raise awareness for the struggles that deaf children and their families face.

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Parents need advice, information, and they need to learn new skills. Especially in the first months after finding out their child might be deaf or hard of hearing, they often stand alone. The information they are given has a significant impact on the cognitive and psycho-social health of children later on in their life. Deaf children are often academically at risk, often because they are missing a solid language foundation. Many deaf children are raised only using spoken language, but even if they use technical aids like cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids, in some cases they can't learn the language fully. Additionally, not all children fulfil the requirements to have surgery to receive cochlear implants. Children start to learn the languages they are exposed to at birth – be it sign languages or spoken languages. After the first few years of life, the window for first language acquisition slowly starts to close, and it becomes increasingly more challenging to learn the language fully. 

 

We want to respond to this need for language acquisition (either spoken or sign language) of deaf children and establish effective family communication. We achieve this by educating and empowering all family members – parents, siblings, and grandparents of deaf or hard-of-hearing children – through a family learning approach so that they can provide an inclusive, nurturing, and anxiety-free environment for early childhood development.

By providing the necessary tools, we will create resilient, empowered, and equipped families, enhance language acquisition and positive self-image of deaf children. We will equip adult educators with new skills, competencies, and confidence to deliver training and create a more inclusive society.