Being a parent's eyes and ears: emotional literacy and empathy of children whose parents have a sensory disability

• Published in: Journal of research in special educational needs Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 257 - 264
• Main Authors: Eden, Sigal, Romi, Shlomo, Braun Aviyashar, Einat
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Wiley-Blackwell 01.10.2017; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescents; blind; Blindness; Child Role; Children; Children with disabilities; Comparative Analysis; deaf; Deafness; Disability; Ears; Emotional Development; Emotional Intelligence; emotional literacy; Emotional Response; Empathy; Exceptional children; Hearing; Hearing Impairments; Literacy; Parents; Parents & parenting; Questionnaires; sensory disability; Visual Impairments
• ISSN: 1471-3802; 1471-3802
• DOI: 10.1111/1471-3802.12383

Children of parents with sensory disability may feel that their experience helped nurture their sense of empathy. The study was designed to examine the connection between parents’ sensory disability (visual disability to blindness and hearing disability to deafness) and the empathy and emotional literacy of their non‐sensory‐disabled children. Participants were 77 children aged 7–17 – 37 children of parents with a sensory disability and 40 children of parents with no such disability. Questionnaires to check empathy and emotional literacy were accompanied by a demographic questionnaire. Findings revealed that levels of empathy and emotional awareness of others (a measure of emotional literacy) were higher among children of parents with a sensory disability than among children of parents without a disability. The results expand the literature on that subject and shed light on the important issues of empathy and emotional literacy in families with disability.