This book is about young deaf children and their families. The children were all born into hearing families, the vast majority of whom knew little about deafness and had no prior experience of people who were born deaf. The book looks at the young deaf children themselves and the impact of the deafness on the lives of their families. The material comes from interviews with 122 parents of deaf children in the Midlands which were carried out in the early 1970s. The book is being reissued to coincide with the publication of the follow-up study, Deaf Young People and Their Families, for which the same families, and the young people themselves have been interviewed.

Despite significant changes in society since the early 1970s, including developments in attitudes to deafness and the legislation that affects deaf children and adults, many of the issues and concerns of this book are as crucial now in the 1990s as they were then. The impact of the diagnosis of deafness in a child, concerns about the best way to bring up a child, and the development of language and communication are as significant now as they were a generation ago. The consequences on relationships within the family of having a deaf child, the role of the father, the effect on grandparents and relationships between siblings remain issues. Certainly, the questions asked of the parents interviewed for this book differ little from questions that might be put in the 1990s, and answers obtained then are echoed in comments made by parents of young deaf children some 20 years later.