The challenges facing the hearing children of deaf adults parallel those of many second-generation immigrant children. Just as many first-generation immigrant parents frequently struggle to communicate in the majority (spoken) language, and come to rely on the greater fluency of their bilingual children, so deaf parents may come to rely on hearing children who are effectively fluent bilinguals. This dynamic can lead codas to act as interpreters for their parents, which can be especially problematic when a child coda is asked to interpret messages that are cognitively or emotionally inappropriate for their age. For example, a school-aged child may be called on to explain a diagnosis of a serious medical condition to their deaf parent.