ASL and the family system.

This paper examines some of the sociological implications of poor interaction on families in which one of the members is deaf. When a family systems perspective is used, once a child is diagnosed as deaf the family is no longer considered "hearing"; the parents may be hearing, the other children may be, but the family system becomes "hearing and deaf." By viewing this as a hearing/deaf problem, it becomes clear that no adequate solution can be found without the participation of deaf adults and the benefit of their perspectives and insights. We suggest that attention be directed toward neutralizing the effects of the stigma associated with deafness so that American Sign Language can become a pivotal tool for facilitating functional symbolic interaction in hearing/deaf families.     

Theoretical and epidemiological aspects of attention deficit and overactivity in deaf children

Disorders of attention deficit and overactivity, ADHD (DSM-IV), and hyperkinetic syndrome (ICD-10) are common and disabling. However, a number of factors in deaf children's development make the assessment of these disorders in deaf children problematic. The prevalence of ADHD and hyperkinetic disorder does not appear to be higher than expected in children with inherited deafness alone but does appear to be higher in children with acquired deafness and/or additional impairments. Data from a re-analysis of an earlier epdemiological study of psychiatric disorder in deaf children and adolescents suggests that these disorders are commoner than expected in deaf children and share the features of ADHD and hyperkinetic disorder seen in hearing children.     

Does deafness lead to enhancement of visual spatial cognition in children? Negative evidence from deaf nonsigners

This study investigated whether deafness contributes to enhancement of visual spatial cognition independent of knowledge of a sign language. Congenitally deaf school children in India who were born to hearing parents and were not exposed to any sign language, and matched hearing controls, were given a test of digit span and five tests that measured visual spatial skills. The deaf group showed shorter digit span than the hearing group, consistent with previous studies. Deaf and hearing children did not differ in their performance on the visual spatial skills test, suggesting that deafness per se may not be a sufficient factor for enhancement of visual spatial cognition. Early exposure to a sign language and fluent sign skills may be the critical factors that lead to differential development of visual spatial skills in deaf people.     

Inclusive education and personal development

Open-ended questionnaires covering mainstream educational experiences and personal development of deaf and hard-of-hearing adults were analyzed. Half of the 34 deaf and hard-of-hearing respondents altered self-labels based on changes in personal definitions rather than audiological changes. Supportive school environments and coping skills contributed to positive perceptions; nonsupportive school environments and being treated as 'different' were viewed negatively. Everyone valued contact with hearing peers. Contact with deaf peers depended on finding those with similar values. Identification with Deaf culture was nonexistent. Most noteworthy, 24 of 34 participants felt caught between the deaf and hearing worlds, indicating the need for niches in both. Implications for educators are that development of self-confidence and comfort with identity may be enhanced by validating the deafness dimension through opportunities for contact with deaf adults and positive relationships with both deaf and hearing peers.     

Self-esteem scores among deaf college students: an examination of gender and parents' hearing status and signing ability

Overall, research studies of self-esteem and deafness yield inconsistent findings. Some studies indicate a higher incidence of low self-esteem among deaf individuals than among hearing individuals (Bat-Chava, 1994; Mulcahy, 1998; Schlesinger, 2000). Other findings suggest that one must examine this complex phenomenon more closely to understand how deafness influences self-concept and self-esteem (Bat-Chava, 2000; Emerton, 1998; Foster, 1998; Munoz-Baell & Ruiz, 2000; Stone, 1998). This study asked whether self-esteem scores are significantly different among deaf college students compared across groups based on gender and parents' hearing status and signing ability. The construct of self-esteem was measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, administered using an American Sign Language-translated videotape. Results revealed that gender, age, and the interaction of parent by gender were nonsignificant. However, respondents who had at least one deaf parent and signed scored significantly higher than those with hearing parents who could not sign and those with hearing parents who could sign. Overall, self-esteem scores for all respondents were high. Implications for further study are discussed.     

Parenting stress and social support in hearing mothers of deaf and hearing children: a longitudinal study

This longitudinal study investigated the impact of child deafness on mothers' stress, size of social networks, and satisfaction with social support. Twenty-three hearing mothers of deaf children and 23 hearing mothers of hearing children completed a series of self-report questionnaires when their children were 22 months, 3, and 4 years old. When children were 22 months, more mothers of deaf children reported pessimism about their children's achieving self-sufficiency and concerns about their children's communication abilities than did mothers of hearing children. When their children were 3 and 4 years old, mothers of deaf and hearing children did not differ in their reports of general parenting stress, as measured by the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). Likewise, mothers' ratings of satisfaction with social support were not affected by child deafness, nor did they change developmentally. Mothers of deaf and hearing children did differ in the types of support networks utilized. Mothers of deaf 22-month-olds reported significantly larger professional support networks, while mothers of hearing children reported significantly larger general support networks across all child ages. Mothers' feelings of stress and satisfaction with social support were very stable across the 2 years examined. The results suggest that most mothers of deaf children do not feel a high level of general parenting stress or dissatisfaction with their lives and support networks. However, mothers of deaf children are likely to feel stress in areas specific to deafness. In addition, because parenting stress was highly stable, special efforts should be made to intervene when mothers of deaf children are expressing high levels of stress.     

How many deaf people are there in the United States? Estimates from the Survey of Income and Program Participation

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is one of a few national surveys that regularly collects data identifying the American population of persons with hearing loss or deafness. Estimates from the SIPP indicate that fewer than 1 in 20 Americans are currently deaf or hard of hearing. In round numbers, nearly 10,000,000 persons are hard of hearing and close to 1,000,000 are functionally deaf. More than half of all persons with hearing loss or deafness are 65 years or older and less than 4% are under 18 years of age. However, these findings are limited to those who report difficulty hearing "normal conversation" and do not include the larger population of persons with hearing loss for which only hearing outside the range and circumstances of normal conversation is affected. Policy makers, communications technology manufacturers, health and education service providers, researchers, and advocacy organizations have an interest in these results.     

Equitable representation of deaf people in mainstream academia: Why not?

Approximately 5% of people in most countries have deafness or significant hearing loss. This significant minority is underrepresented in mainstream universities across the world. Background information about deafness, relevant technology and its drawbacks, and the use of interpreters are discussed. The barriers to equitable representation of qualified Deaf academics in university settings are reviewed. The experiences of three Deaf academics who teach in mainstream universities are discussed, and suggestions for resolution are offered. Examples are cited for teaching, research and service, the threefold duties of the successful academic. Continuing access difficulties mean that only a few deaf graduates now consider doctoral study; cost and the perception of cost, as well as negative attitudes and lack of knowledge may mean that the few successful graduates have difficulties gaining employment; successful tenure and promotion prospects may also be hindered for the same reasons. We also provide recommendations how barriers for successful Deaf academics can be removed or mitigated.     

Smoking and deaf adults: associations with age at onset of deafness

Smoking is a major health problem whose prevalence in different populations is thought to be influenced by sociocultural and linguistic factors. Although smoking and hearing loss are positively correlated, little is known about the smoking habits of deaf populations. Using national survey data, this study determined the smoking prevalence in two socioculturally distinct deaf populations, based on age at onset of deafness. The smoking prevalence in each deaf population was compared to the smoking prevalence in the hearing population in multivariate analyses that adjusted for sociodemographics and health status. The smoking prevalence among postlingually deafened adults was not significantly different from that among hearing adults. Prelingually deafened adults were found to be less likely to smoke than hearing adults, even though they have less education and lower income, factors both associated with higher smoking prevalence in other populations. The lower smoking prevalence among prelingually deafened adults may be due to cultural differences or to limited access to English-language tobacco advertising.     

Conversations between deaf children and their hearing mothers: pragmatic and dialogic characteristics

We examined communication between hearing mothers and their deaf or hearing children longitudinally at child-ages 22 months and 3 years. Specifically, we analyzed both the effects of child deafness and developmental change on pragmatic and dialogic characteristics of communication. From 22 months to 3 years, deaf and hearing children's communicative skills improved similarly along some dimensions: as they grew older, both deaf and hearing children increased the amount they communicated, became increasingly responsive to their mothers' attentional focus, and were responsible for initiating a higher proportion of the dyads' conversations. On the other hand, deaf children were less skilled at maintaining topics, and the pragmatic function of their communication was more likely to be unclear compared to hearing children. Deaf children were also more likely to direct their mothers and less likely to ask questions than hearing children. Communication by hearing mothers was primarily examined to determine the degree to which they controlled the interactions. Overall, mothers of deaf children were only more controlling along one dimension. Mothers of deaf children used more response controls than mothers of hearing children. However, the majority of measures suggested they did not exert more topic or turn-taking controls than did mothers of hearing children. In addition, mothers of deaf and hearing children seemed equally sensitive to their children's communication abilities. Communication by mothers of both deaf and hearing children changed in similar ways as their children developed. Most of the differences in communication by mothers of deaf and hearing children seemed attributable to the deaf children's linguistic delays. The results suggest that intervention efforts should be focused on fostering linguistic development and not general communication skills or changing maternal conversational control.     

Factors Affecting Psychosocial Adjustment of Deaf Students

Deafness is more than a medical condition. Recent theories have emphasized the importance of environmental factors on the psychosocial development of deaf children. As part of a larger scale study, this article aims to investigate the impact of the following variables on deaf students' psychosocial adjustment in Turkey: student-related background and experiential characteristics, parent-related variables, school-related factors, and teacher-related variables. The sample of 1,097 deaf students enrolled in the elementary, secondary, and high schools was drawn from 34 schools in 24 cities on a national geographical spread. The multiple regression analysis revealed that degree of hearing loss, additional handicap, and age at onset of deafness were negatively related to psychosocial adjustment of deaf students. However, there was a positive relationship between psychosocial variables and some of the independent variables, such as use of hearing aids, speech intelligibility, academic achievement, parental hearing status, and communication methods used at school. The findings of the study do not support a "pathological" view of deafness, suggesting that it was not deafness per se but that some environmental factors were also influential on the psychosocial adjustment of deaf students.     

Is there a link between hearing aid use, employment, and income?

This paper examines hearing aid use by 60 congenitally deaf individuals who attended special education units in South Australia. The study indicates that only one-third to half of deaf adults wore their hearing aids in social situations for speech detection. Just over one-third (n = 22) of the deaf adults involved in this study wore their hearing aids at work and less than half (n = 27) wore their hearing aids at home. Younger deaf adults were more likely to wear their hearing aids in the home than older deaf adults. Younger deaf adults tended to wear their hearing aids more frequently when they were at school if they had perceived their teachers had a positive attitude to deafness. This study found that there was no statistically significant relationship between wearing hearing aids and employment status. There was also no statistically significant difference in hearing aid use between men and women. The low use of hearing aids could be attributed at least in part to the current Australian policy regarding supply and servicing of hearing aids to congenitally deaf individuals which ceases to be free after the individual reaches 21 years of age.     

Ethics, deafness, and new medical technologies

In the last 50 years, several new technologies have become enormously important within the Deaf community and have helped significantly to improve deaf people's lives in a hearing world. Current public attention and admiration, however, seems unduly focused on medical technologies that promise to solve "the problem" of being deaf. One reason for this interest, we argue, is the public's preoccupation with deafness as a disability and promises that technological breakthroughs such as the cochlear implant will "cure" deafness. Pressure on parents to make quick and early decisions and lack of adequate information about alternatives often leave them unprepared for the consequences of these decisions. To allow deaf individuals and their families to make better informed decisions about their lives and their futures, we argue finally that professionals who interact with these families adopt inclusive and individualizing ethics.     

Coenrollment for students who are deaf or hard of hearing: friendship patterns and social interactions

Third- and fourth-grade students in two separate classrooms--one a classroom with only hearing students and the other a coenrolled classroom with hearing, hard of hearing, and deaf students--were assessed to determine friendship patterns, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions about sign language and deafness. Sociograms, interviews, and videotape analysis of the students' responses were done. Results suggest that hearing students in the coenrolled classroom had better sign language skills, a more positive attitude toward deafness, and an improved awareness of certain aspects of hearing loss (such as speech and amplification). Deaf and hard of hearing students' social acceptance was similar to that of their hearing peers.     

Child maltreatment and trauma exposure among deaf and hard of hearing young adults

The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence of child maltreatment and lifetime exposure to other traumatic events in a sample of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH; n = 147) and matched hearing (H; n = 317) college students. Participants completed measures of child maltreatment (CM), adult victimization and trauma exposure, and current symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Overall, DHH participants reported significantly more instances of CM compared to H participants, with 76% of DHH reporting some type of childhood abuse or neglect. Additionally, DHH participants reported experiencing a higher number of different types of CM, and also reported increased incidents of lifetime trauma exposure and elevated PTSD symptoms. Severity of deafness increased the risk of maltreatment, with deaf participants reporting more instances of CM than hard of hearing participants, and hard of hearing participants reporting more instances of CM than H participants. Among DHH participants, having a deaf sibling was associated with reduced risk for victimization, and identification with the Deaf community was associated with fewer current symptoms of PTSD. A regression model including measures of childhood physical and sexual abuse significantly predicted adult re-victimization and accounted for 27% of the variance among DHH participants. DHH participants report significantly higher rates of CM, lifetime trauma, and PTSD symptoms compared to H participants. Severity of deafness appears to increase the risk of being victimized. Being part of the Deaf community and having access to others who are deaf appear to be important protective factors for psychological well-being among DHH individuals.     

Culture or Disability? Examining Deaf Characters in Children’s Book Illustrations

Picture books can influence how children perceive those from backgrounds and cultures different from their own. Studies have been conducted examining how the text of children’s literature portrays multicultural characters or characters with disabilities. However, few have looked specifically at the portrayal of characters through illustrations, despite growing understanding of the importance that illustrations play in text comprehension. Fewer still have analyzed children’s literature for depictions of deaf characters and characteristics of Deaf culture. One recent study examined children’s picture books for portrayals of deaf individuals in the text; however, examining illustrations may provide additional information for both hearing and d/Deaf (For the purpose of this paper, capital “D” Deaf refers to people who are recognized part of the Deaf community; “d” deaf refers to the inability to hear or people unable to hear; d/D includes both populations.) readers about deafness and the Deaf population. In addition, while illustrations are important for all young readers, they may be particularly important for d/Deaf readers who are by nature visual learners. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of illustrations in 20 picture books targeted to ages 4 to 8?years for messages linked to pathological and cultural models of deafness. In addition, results were compared to previous analyses of the text in the picture books. Results indicated that the illustrations do not represent deaf characters from a cultural perspective. Instead, similar to the text, illustrations present deaf characters more frequently as having a pathological condition or disability, that should be fixed through medical interventions in order to fit into a hearing world.     

Demographics, psychiatric diagnoses, and other characteristics of North American Deaf and hard-of-hearing inpatients

This study examined demographic and clinical data from a specialty deaf inpatient unit so as to better understand characteristics of severely and chronically mentally ill deaf people. The study compares deaf and hearing psychiatric inpatients on demographic variables, psychiatric discharge diagnoses, a language assessment measure, a cognitive ability measure, and a measure of psychosocial functioning and risk of harm to self and others. Overall, findings indicate a broader range of diagnoses than in past studies with posttraumatic stress disorder being the most common diagnosis. Compared with hearing patients in the same hospital, deaf patients were less likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic or substance abuse disorder and more likely to be diagnosed with a mood, anxiety, personality, or developmental disorder. Psychosocial functioning of the deaf patients was generally similar to hearing psychiatric patients. Deaf patients presented significantly higher risks than hearing patients in areas of self-harm and risk of sexual offending. Cognitive scores show that both the deaf and hearing inpatient population is skewed toward persons who are lower functioning. An additional surprising finding was that 75% of deaf individuals fell into the nonfluent range of communication in American Sign Language.     

Lexical and grammatical abilities in deaf Italian preschoolers: the role of duration of formal language experience

We evaluated language development in deaf Italian preschoolers with hearing parents, taking into account the duration of formal language experience (i.e., the time elapsed since wearing a hearing aid and beginning language education) and different methods of language education. Twenty deaf children were matched with 20 hearing children for age and with another 20 hearing children for duration of experience. Deaf children showed a significant delay in both vocabulary and grammar when compared to same-age hearing children yet a similar development compared to hearing children matched for duration of formal language experience. The delay in linguistic development could be attributable to shorter formal language experience and not to deafness itself. Deaf children exposed to spoken language accompanied by signs tended to understand and produce more words than children exposed only to spoken language. We suggest that deaf children be evaluated based on their linguistic experience and cognitive and communicative potential.     

Approaches to studying in deaf and hearing students in higher education

We conducted a survey to compare the responses of 149 deaf students and 121 hearing students taking the same courses to a shortened and adapted version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory. In general, the impact of deafness on approaches to studying was relatively slight, and deaf students appeared to be at least as capable as hearing students of engaging with the underlying meaning of the materials to be learned. We used factor analysis to identify eight scales, and differences between the two groups were statistically significant on four of these scales. Discriminant analysis indicated that deaf students found it more difficult to relate ideas on different topics and that this was more marked in those who preferred to communicate using sign. However, deaf students were more likely than hearing students to adopt a critical approach and to analyze the internal structure of the topics studied.