Meet: James Knott, the man behind the @daddyknott Instagram account about having a Deaf son

After he had a Deaf son, James Knott set up a popular Instagram account about his son’s day to day life. We interviewed him about having a Deaf son, sign language and social media.

When did you realise your son was deaf?

We had the standard new born baby screening test in the hospital the day Nelson was born, both the tests came back as non-responsive. 

At this stage we did not know the severity of his hearing loss, we got referred to the audiologist, three weeks passed and myself and my wife Becky knew that something wasn’t right as he did not respond to our voices or noise in our very busy house. We had our appointment with Dr Frank, it was after this that we knew Nelson  had severe hearing loss.

How much knowledge of deafness and deaf culture did you have?

My wife Becky has been learning sign language for the last 4 years and has just completed her BSL level 3, so she has a good base knowledge of the deaf culture and deaf awareness  Becky learning sign language is a complete coincidence, we have no history of deafness in either of our family’s.

How much support did you get with his deafness?

Since we found out Nelson is deaf, I can’t really fault the help and support we as a family have had. Finding out the answers that we wanted was not always easy and we sometimes came away from appointments not sure where we stood, but I think now we have a clear vision of the possible routes we can head down.

How did the Instagram account take off?

The Instagram page was something that I didn’t intend to set up, Becky mentioned it and said that it would be good to do. 

Then when I was feeding Nelson at some godly hour in the morning I thought why not what’s the worst that can happen, so I set up @daddyknott (give us a follow) posted a picture gave a bit of an outline to the story and fell asleep. 

When I woke up I had some comments and lots of likes and followers, I try and do a post each day and I enjoy doing it. Since I have started up a twitter account that I am keen to promote: @daddyknott11.

What kind of responses have you had to being so positive about your son’s deafness?

The response has been brilliant, I have answered some questions for a blog that has had some good feedback and shared widely.

I have been in contact with the NDCS and KDCS and am looking to do some fund raising with them and Gillingham FC where I work. I think we are just keen to spread our story as much as we can.

Follow James on Instragram by clicking here and on Twitter as @DaddyKnott11.