Lära och Leva: Kunskapsutveckling hos personer med en ärftlig dövhet/hörselnedsättning

Learning and Living: Development of knowledge in people with a hereditary deafness/hearing loss

The aim of this study is to explore the development of how people in different generations of a family with a hereditary hearing loss developed knowledge and to examine the role of the educational system and how it influenced this development. The research questions are:

1. What is the prevalence of the deafness spoken of in the family chronicle?

2. What different kinds of knowledge did the family members with deafness/hearing loss develop and how did they make use of them?

3. In what ways may they have experienced their deafness/hearing loss as a suffering?

4. What knowledge did they develop because the hearing loss recurred in several successive generations?

The studied material includes answers from a questionnaire, different historical documents and sixteen interviews. Descendants of the first man born in the family in 1816 described as deaf. Among the descendants a total of 84 persons with a hereditary hearing loss have been found, at most in seven successive generations. The sixteen persons interviewed have spoken about themselves, their parent, mother or father-parent, with hearing loss. This has made it possible to explore the development of knowledge in different areas. The findings from the interviews are interpreted in four chapters where the development knowledge in the different generations has been related to each other and to the hearing loss. The study shows that the generations developed various forms of competence and knowledge and that this occurred mainly in the homes. The members of the family with hearing loss were educated by themselves. The role of public school was small. The last generation, however, has been able to carry out higher studies. The communicative practice at home was spoken Swedish, eye contact, a loud and clear voice and speechreading. The speech of children was read before the children themselves had to read the speech of others.