Psychiatric Problems of the Deaf Child

The presence of deafness in children creates a higher risk for emotional maladjustment. In a group of 172 deaf children seen at CPRI over 70 percent had an additional central nervous system disorder. Specialized audiometric and psychometric testing must be used to differentiate deaf children from other psychiatric disorders in children. There is a void in our knowledge regarding the cause of brain damage in a significant number of deaf children, despite early diagnosis. Familial type deafness, although a significant cause of deafness in some studies was not significant at a children's mental health setting. Mental retardation and severity of deafness are not related and care must be taken not to mislabel each handicap because of their different needs, despite the fact that the conditions do merge. Deafness does not produce any specific psychiatric syndrome, although more hyperkinetic and immature deaf children were seen in this study. ‘Pathological’ homes are associated with antisocial disorders in deaf children, as they are with normal hearing, delinquent children. So-called ‘good’ homes err on the side of protectiveness, resulting in dependent, immature, anxious deaf children. The presence of mental retardation and deafness reduced the perplexity of mothers but will more likely lead to separation from the family. There is a tightening of parenting bonds to healthy siblings of a deaf child with possible exclusion of the deaf child. Some staff in a mental health setting should be trained in ‘manualisms’ but all can reach out to the deaf child. Further studies of this kind can lead to better understanding of psychological problems in the deaf child, which in turn can lead to improved parenting and serve as a base to the development of preventive mental health programs.