What we know and what we don’t know about early-developmental support and education of DHH children in five European countries

Abstract

This proposition will present five European national systems of support for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children and their families. The countries are: Poland, Slovakia, Germany, France, Switzerland. The purpose is to compare different systemic and institutional solutions existing as a result of political, social and educational decisions, defined as support (diagnosis, hearing aids, rehabilitation, educational systems) for DHH. Two of chosen countries Poland and Slovakia have joined the structures of the EU later. Consequently the initiatives aimed at creating equal opportunities for disabled people have been based on other initial matters. The experience of French, German teachers has left its imprint on the solutions applied in other countries. An interesting issue is how it is solved in multilingual and multicultural Switzerland. Our method consists of comparative analysis of articles about the situation in chosen countries. We compare the solutions about the diagnosis process, preferences to hearing aids and rehabilitation type used in each country and then how the main issues influence on the child growth and the family satisfaction. The results show that the systemic and institutional solutions are different, however the implication of parents' status is the relevant indicator of harmonious child development. The question remains also: how better support the parents’ involvement ? What type of support propose to a child ? Description of the systems of support and education of DHH children will offer an insight into solutions proposed in the selected countries. However, based on the comparisons – the best solutions may be introduced