Parents of Deaf Children Seeking Hearing Loss-Related Information on the Internet: the Australian Experience

Abstract

Parents whose children are diagnosed in an infant screening program are required to make some difficult choices about the management of the hearing loss at a time when they are emotionally vulnerable. They are required to evaluate information and outcomes regarding issues such as technology for hearing impairment, communication options, education, and rehabilitation. The World Wide Web has become an important resource of health information for both health consumers and practitioners. The ability to obtain accurate health information online quickly, conveniently, and privately provides opportunity to make informed decisions. However, little is known about the level of the use of the Internet to acquire health information, particularly in the case of parents of deaf children seeking information. This study confirms that searches for health information on the Internet are conducted primarily by mothers. In the Australian context, there is minimal online information available to families beyond early intervention. Information on education issues, mental health, and deafness or the day-to-day management of a child or adolescent with a hearing loss are neglected topics on Web sites. This study also revealed that the majority of respondents had never visited HealthInsite or Medline Plus, two gateway sites for reliable consumer health information, although the information on these sites is more generic in nature and unlikely to assist parents to make informed choices on complex issues such as communication options or education. However, the study suggested that half the parents have talked to their doctor or hearing professional about information they found on the Internet, which is an encouraging tendency.

Internet-based intervention training for parents of young children with disabilities: a promising service-delivery model

“…Given the ubiquitous nature of Internet technology and parents' increasing comfort with it (Porter & Edirippulige, 2007;Zaidman-Zait & Jamieson, 2007), distanceservice provision in EI seems a logical step toward bridging service gaps and reducing costs in service delivery. A research base is needed to determine evidence-based practices with regard to acceptable and effective procedures for Internet-based parent-intervention training.…”

“…Parents seek information relevant to their children's needs and want to deliver effective interventions (Porter & Edirippulige, 2007). In addition, parents can maintain and generalise the use of the trained strategies to other activities in their natural environments and, therefore, increase the learning and practice opportunities for their children (Kashinath, Woods, & Goldstein, 2006).…”

Learning wellness: how ageing Australians experience health information literacy

“…Specifically, health information seeking relates to how and why people acquire health information, the channels they use to locate health information, preferred media for receiving health information and how found information is utilised (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007;Warner & Procaccino, 2004). The focus of research and resulting literature in this field is largely directed towards an examination of health information seeking behaviours based on attributes such as age, gender and health status (for example Hardt & Hollis-Sawyer, 2007;Kim, Lustria, Burke & Kwon, 2007;McCaughan & McKenna, 2007;Porter & Edirippulige, 2007;Wathen & Harris, 2006;Warner & Procaccino, 2004;Wicks, 2004).…”

Speech, Sign, or Multilingualism for Children With Hearing Loss: Quantitative Insights Into Caregivers' Decision Making

“…Some of these studies examined influences on decision making related to a specific child characteristic (e.g., children using cochlear implants, described in Wheeler et al, 2009) or type of influence (e.g., culture, as in Borum, 2012). Other studies commented on caregiver decision making regarding communication mode (e.g., the use of sign by children with cochlear implants, as in Hyde & Punch, 2011) or sources of information that influence caregivers (e.g., the Internet, as in Porter & Edirippulige, 2007), although this was not the focus of the research.…”