Throughout the book, I use terminology that reflects professional usage in China: for example, "rehabilitation," which is not commonly used now in the United States or the United Kingdom in the context of preschool interventions for deaf children, is used here because it is a literal translation of the Chinese term, and its connotations are integral to Chinese concepts of special education.
Using evidence obtained from these sources, I identified a number of key issues affecting the experience of Chinese parents with deaf children that could be covered in the interviews. The support of grandparents and other family members, the implications for parents of having a deaf child when only one child is permitted, parents' preoccupation with finding a medical cure, the availability of hearing aids and professional support, and social attitudes toward deafness and deaf people were among the issues that were clearly very relevant to these parents.
I also consulted Western studies concerning deaf children and their families. One in particular, Susan Gregory's study (1976) based on interviews with 122 English mothers of deaf children under the age of six, was especially useful; her interviews covered many aspects of life with a deaf child, including development of language and communication, social behavior, play, and education. Some areas, such as parents' attitudes toward discipline and the use of sign/gesture at home, were incorporated into the questionnaire for Chinese parents; this allowed some useful if tentative comparisons to be made between the responses of Chinese parents and those of English ones.