"My third child was hearing, which was new to me."
Vogelaar family
Deafness
"As a child I didn't know putting something down on a table made a sound."
"We can tell friends and family something about his development, but his ears won't change."
"Society makes us handicapped."
"Meeting deaf adults gave our parents a positive attitude towards deaf children."
"I really wonder how he's going to experience it later on."
"I have felt like we were missing help from within the deaf community. You mostly see hearing professionals."
"If you can't hear, you're deaf. I think 'very severely hearing impaired' is very weird."
"His hearing loss quickly became less important."
"It wasn't until later that we realized: not being able to hear, that's actually kind of complicated."
"My parents could ask our deaf babysitter all kinds of questions about deaf people."
"Deafness used to not be quite as well known, my mother would explain what it was to the other children."
"Will he be able to enjoy music?"
"A CI can be useful if you get it when you're still young, but it's no use to me."
"People looked at me funny when I said I didn't think it was sad to be deaf at all."
"Some deaf children think it's something to grow out of."
"My parents were fine with my deafness because of our Islamic faith."
"We've never decided not to do something because they're deaf. The audiologist told us: you can grow up to be old and happy with it."
"Five days after his birth he was already getting hearing tests done."
"The youngest is now two years old, I don't know if they're gonna use a hearing aid."