Paper
Counseling as support for families with deaf children
- issue: Issue 1 / 2009
- authors: Mariselda Tessarolo
- keywords: children, family, deaf, counseling, Italy
- views: 3421
- downloaded: 0
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abstract
Background. Deafness is regarded as a less severe disability than others because it is 'invisible'. This often leads to neglect the needs of a deaf child and not take into account the difficulties experienced by non-deaf parents of deaf children in the relationship with their child, in their life as a couple, and in social inclusion.
For at least two decades now in Italy, too, an educational and service approach has been applied that views the child as a whole, and not only because he/she cannot hear, with the consequent development of language acquisition. At the same time, the need to support families with deaf children (and non-deaf parents) has emerged, given that these parents, from the moment of the diagnosis onwards, have to face situations they are totally unable to handle. Thus, counseling for families with death children has been set in motion. Counseling is a process of dialogue and interaction through which the counselor helps the client make decisions and take action accordingly and also supplies thorough and accurate information as well as adequate psychological support. Through counseling, 'clients' are given assistance in critical times, are helped to change their lifestyle and are enabled to cope with anxiety-inducing information by being encouraged to adjust to its implications.
The issues dealt with from a counseling perspective will be: phases of parents' reaction on learning of their child's deafness; role of the family in educational choices tied to communication within the family and involving the social sphere; school inclusion and starting work. Parents experiencing this type of service are both the targets and the intermediaries of the help supplied, because they will be able to help their own children once they have benefited from the positive effects of counseling. It is important not only to consider counseling at therapeutic level, but also make it a service that gives advice on education and social inclusion to families with deaf children.
Objectives and Method. At present two experimentations of this type of counseling are underway; they involve the Settore Cultura, Sport e Politiche sociali [Culture, Sport and Social Policy Sector] of the Venice district and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore [Sacred Heart Catholic University] in Brescia. In the first project, the rehabilitative intervention was proposed at first at a global level (i.e. in different settings: family; day nursery; nursery school; elementary, middle and high school), which addressed cognitive, affective, behavioral and educational aspects (learning which type of handicap). At a second level, the intervention became specific: deafness is considered within the limitation of verbal language learning, both in understanding and producing it (articulatory, lexical and semantic, morphosyntactic and narrative level). The second experimentation project underway at the Istituto Pavoni in Brescia aims at the school inclusion of the deaf. Following earlier experimentation, the new proposal is articulated over four areas of intervention, among which there is family counseling (triggered by requests from the family themselves). These activities envisage counseling for general educational problems; for issues in the choice of cochlear implants or prostheses; for problems of school integration and inclusion and, finally, for psychological problems. Both projects consider family as an important element of the therapeutic course.
Results. Not all results are available. Levels of satisfaction about the services obtained by families of deaf individuals were published by the observatory of the Venice District: 71% would be in favor of attending training and update courses (20% are still uncertain) and to to deeply analyse psychological and educational aspects. Interest is high for 49%, average mid for 43%, and low for 8%. Those that had had the opportunity to attend training courses had supplied their level of approval: fair for 53%, good for 26%, sufficient for 16% and insufficient for 5%. The most frequent suggestions recommend dealing more with the practical aspects of deafness (32%) and favor a greater communication between participants We can say there is a strong need for training and knowledge.
The Brescia experimentation didn't publishe any data, but the project has been extended, sure sign of its fruitfulness. In any case, both projects showed the usefulnees of supporting these families, also in a personalized way, before their children access the school system.
Institutions involved are advised to inform families in order to encourage them use early diagnosis interventions, but also to take advantage of counseling, which can help them in their difficult task of competently coping with the many needs of a deaf child. Indeed, the last aim is school and social inclusion of deaf children and family counseling to be considered as a presupposition for achieving the objective of deaf people integration.
Key references
Cima, M. (2002). Genitori e sordità. Babele: Verso uno scambio comunicativo [Parents and deafness. Babel: Toward a communication exchange]. Sordità, 2 (Special Issue).
Luterman, D. (1983). Il counseling per i genitori fri bambini audiolesi. Centro Ricerche e Studi Amplifon, Milano.
La rieducazione.htm [Re-education.htm]
Contacts: Mariselda Tessarolo, Professore straordinario, Dipartimento di psicologia generale, Università di Padova, Via Venezia, 8, Padova Phone 0498276665 E-mail: mariselda.tessarolo@unipd.it