Hello CODA UK and Ireland families,
My name is Naomi Milliken, and I’m a Trainee Educational Psychologist at the University of East London. I work with children and young people to support their learning, behaviour, and emotional well-being in schools and the community. As part of my professional doctorate, I have the critical role of completing meaningful research with children and young people aged 0-25.
As a GODA (grandchild of deaf parents), I have always been interested in my mother’s CODA identity. We have spent many hours reflecting on the strengths and difficulties that she faced having parents who were both Deaf and non-verbal. My mother is incredibly proud of her CODA identity and tried her best to immerse my siblings and me in Deaf culture, for which I am very grateful. We attended a secondary school for Deaf and hearing students. Therefore, I had the privilege of completing levels 1 and 2 in BSL, which meant I could later volunteer in a primary school for Deaf infants.
France (2004): Me, aged nine, and my auntie signing a Christmas song for my grandparents (French sign language).
My identity and shared experiences have influenced my Doctoral research proposal in working with CODAs. I hope to take a participatory approach to empower children and young people by involving them in research decision-making. For example, I shall ask them, ‘what do we want to find out? How do we want to find this out?’. I am in the early stages of the research process and have yet to receive ethical approval. However, I was eager to introduce myself, and hopefully, some of you will be keen to join me on my research journey.
If you are interested, please look out for the recruitment information sheets that I will share with you all in January / February 2023; however, if you have any questions before then, I would love to hear from you: u2190383@uel.ac.uk
I appreciate your time. Best wishes, Naomi Milliken
