Childhood development in deaf children: relationships with family, friends and school.

A psychological analysis

Deafness itself does not directly cause psychopathological issues. However, indirect consequences of deafness can have a negative impact on the psycho-emotional development of the deaf child, on their way of interacting with others, their self-image, their environment and on the development of personality.

To understand these risk factors it is important to remember that the deaf child analyses, understands, elaborates and transforms their own personal experiences through a series of psychological processes that involve linguistic capacity, personality traits and biological dispositions. These processes can lead to adaptive behaviours where the child is attentive, learns language, and develops good relationships with others, or to maladaptive behaviours, where the child is distracted or aggressive, does not participate in language learning and has poor relationships with others.

These processes are also interconnected with the relationship between the child and his or her parents, with education, and relationships with friends and school staff. For example, acceptance or refusal of classmates contributes to the building of the child’s personality characteristics, as self-esteem, self-efficacy and a tendency for isolation represent a psycho-social risk factor.

Psychological disorders that affect individuals during childhood and adolescence, are often deviations from typical behaviour and cause difficulties for the child and people around them - principally parents and teachers. In this case, it is often more productive to find the cause of the disturbance and, where possible, change that rather than treat the disturbance itself.

Children with good mental heath have appropriate behaviours at home, school and within their community, and they can enjoy a good quality of life. Mental health problems arise in the context of an interaction between the social environment in which the person lives and developmental processes; these are dynamic and can have a large impact on the development of intellectual ability, social skills and, moreover, on emotional maturity.