About

Sarah Goulding is a PhD student at Heriot Watt University and an experienced social worker.

Sarah started her PhD at Heriot Watt in September 2022. Prior to this she had a career in social work, specialising in with the deaf* community in Edinburgh and the Lothians, ensuring deaf adults could access the support and care they required. She also developed a parent and toddler group. Prior to this she worked within adoption and fostering, supporting adults to become parents and carers, and then supporting parents and their children with trauma, developmental delays, birth family contact and challenging behaviours.

Sarah is researching deaf representation in British children’s picture books. She is trying to find out if and how these can be used to support hearing parents’ to develop their understanding of their deaf child’s experience.

The majority of deaf children are born into hearing families who often have little knowledge of deafness, the challenges or potential their child might experience. Picture books are a common feature of childhood and can offer parents and children new ways of seeing deaf children and adults depending on how they are represented, the types of stories they are included in and the frequency of inclusion.

deaf* is being used to encompass those who are deaf, deafened, hard of hearing, or a deaf user of British Sign Language