Fakkel family
The Fakkel family has two deaf children, Emiel and Sofie. Mother Arjenne Fakkel made the ABC-book, a wonderful book for parents and children about the alphabet.

Experiences of this family

"It's a shame deaf and hearing impaired people haven't always gone to school together."
"At home they often remove their CI."
"I think parents should discuss getting a CI with their child."
"With foreign deaf people I use a combination of signs and lip reading."
"My hobbies are video games and soccer."
"I'm able to read lips a little bit, but not very well."
"I have both hearing and deaf friends."
"I use interpreters, but soon I'm going to try a captioner as well."
"I want to be a veterinarian when I grow up."
"I want to go to the same school together with my two deaf friends."
"We participate in activities with WeZoDo and the Zo Hoort Het foundation."
"I'm a real bookworm."
"Children will go their own way with their language preferences, anyway."
"We managed to get sign language classes that Sofie can invite friends to."
"What I really miss for Sofie now is contact with older deaf people. I organized something for that myself."
"Deaf children live in two worlds, in a way."
"Sign language allows you to express yourself more freely."
"It's important for children to be able to be themselves."
"There weren't many options for secondary schools."
"In a classroom like that, or in the hallway, they miss out on large chunks. That's very difficult."
"It definitely isn't a breeze at the regular school, it requires a lot of attention."
"We were lucky to find a regular school in the neighborhood where the children could go."
"It wasn't until later that we realized: not being able to hear, that's actually kind of complicated."
"It was really kind of a relief when we heard Emiel was deaf."