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Do deaf people have deaf children? The number of Deaf couples who give birth to deaf children is very small - less than 10%. Most deaf children - around 90%, are born to hearing couples who may never have encountered deafness before and have no knowledge of sign language. Hearing people react very differently to the diagnosis of deafness than Deaf people do, and these different reactions and attitudes to deafness can be very difficult for the other to understand. The situation also presents a paradox in that the people who have fluent visual language skills and know what it is like to be a deaf child in a hearing world - Deaf people themselves, are rarely consulted or involved in deaf children’s early development, unless special steps are taken to involve them. Author: DeafSign.Com Date Published @ DS: 25/10/2000