Social inclusion for deaf and hard of hearing youth

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) youth often face barriers in their day-to-day environment and have trouble participating in social life, making friends, and dealing with their emotions in a constructive or healthy way. In turn, these difficulties can have a negative impact on their mental health and well-being. Even though access to the social world around them, including environmental factors in the build environment (e.g. noise), are important drivers for a positive development, these areas are still severely understudied in DHH youth. Multiple projects in our lab are addressing this gap in our knowledge, aiming to ultimately create more supportive and inclusive environments for and with young DHH individuals.

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To maximize impact, our research is conducted in close collaboration with members of the DHH community (also as part of our team), experts in audiology from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), hospitals and schools in the Netherlands, China, and Portugal.

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People involved

Psychology, Leiden University - Carolien Rieffe, Adva Eichengreen, Yung-Ting Tsou, Brenda Sousa da Silva, Claudia Libbi, Jennifer Schoerke

Partners from different clinical settings - Chris H. Stronks (LUMC), Guida Veiga (University of Evora), Herédio Sousa (Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central), Johan H.M. Frijns (LUMC), Luísa Monteiro (Hospital Lusíadas Lisboa)

Architecture - Alexander Koutamanis (TU Delft).