Mother Father Deaf: Living between Sound and Silence

by Paul Preston

“Mother father deaf” is the phrase commonly used within the Deaf community to refer to hearing children of deaf parents. These children grow up between two cultures, the Hearing and the Deaf, forever balancing the worlds of sound and silence. Paul Preston, one of these children, takes us to the place where Deaf and Hearing cultures meet, where families like his own embody the conflicts and resolutions of two often opposing world views.

Based on 150 interviews with adult hearing children of deaf parents throughout the United States, Mother Father Deaf examines the process of assimilation and cultural affiliation among a population whose lives incorporate the paradox of being culturally “Deaf” yet functionally hearing. It is rich in anecdote and analysis, remarkable for its insights into a family life normally closed to outsiders.

Genres: Nonfiction, Disability

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads more like a thesis than a book. Subject matter is interesting, but the way it's presented is really not.

[Allison Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book to read as I begin a new job in a school for deaf children. However, it is a bit dated and I would like to follow up with something more current.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly repetitive, but an interesting collection of accounts of the lives of CODAs.

[Martina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I expected something slightly different. It reads like a very long research paper (which I guess it is); I'd rather read more of the personal stories. Towards the end of the book I actually just skimmed through the research-y summary parts (which were very repetitive and didn't really offer many answers) and carefully read only the people's testimonies – which I would have liked to go more in depth and give more specific examples... They were the interesting stuff, and two or three sentences by each informant were in no way enough. Yes, some people could sign, some people couldn't, some interpreted as children, some didn't... That was to be expected. After it was established that pretty much everybody's experience was different, I would have liked to explore their individual stories in more detail.

[Paxel Lionetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely read non-fiction books, and this book in particular was out of choice. My previous non-fiction books I've read have been for classes, however this one was recommended to me by one of my professors. I very much liked the in-depth analyzation of the impact on people when they are raised with Deaf parents. It was a long book, and that added to its interest, because the author wasn't afraid to stop and analyze small aspects of his research and hypotheses. The author had an amazing way of both distancing and inserting himself into the interviewee's stories. This gave an interesting opportunity to construct hypotheses alongside the author as well as get an in depth analyzation of such from Preston himself. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and thats saying a lot since I've only just started reading non-fiction.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book in college, had it on the shelf, so I re-read it. It is old, so now I want to find an update, or something about deaf culture with the internet and social media.

[Anneliese · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting glimpse of life on the margins between Deaf and Hearing cultures - the idea of a culture based on a physical/functional difference is fascinating to me. felt a bit rambling at times, would have liked more details at others, but well-written overall. the author is himself the hearing adult child of deaf parents.
(comments supposedly written in November 2007)

(June 2010)
I'm at a loss to explain the above comments - am currently reading this book and have no recollection of having read it before... Whether this is my first or second go-round, I'm very much enjoying the experience and have more to bring to it now than I did in 2007. Strange, strange...

[Evelyn Repass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Study of hearing children raised by deaf parents. How does a child learn to speak if it is rarely modeled at home? Sign language. Imagine going to kindergarten with ASL as a primary means of communication.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative.