Child Counseling Presentation

Ildri

Ildri

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:wave: Everyone!

As you may or may not know, I'm a grad student studying to become a counselor. One of my classes at the moment is Child Counseling, and I was assigned to do a project on the child counseling topic of my choice. So I'm giving a presentation on counseling d/Deaf/HoH children. I thought this could be a good opportunity to educate and bust some myths. Now, my hearing loss only came on in adulthood. I'd love to hear some thoughts from those of you who were d/Deaf/HoH as children (or HAVE d/Deaf/HoH children) about what you think child counselors ought to know.

:ty: so much for your help!
 
What they should know? What's the situation for the deaf child? Deaf kids in the mainstream are likely to have a lot of anger if they have no good support system.

So there's one thing for you.
 
Good for you Ildri. You are asking the population that knows what you need to know and asking them to teach you. Commendations for that!

Study, study, study the historical context of deafness in this country. It has a lot to do with the way you need to view your deaf/hoh clients. It cannot be left out in a complete assessment of needs.

The anger Botts mentioned. It's there, and it is justified. Let them know that their anger is justified, and then spend time exploring with them ways in which that anger can become productive for them.

Meet your clients right where they are. Start there.
 
Yeah i went to counseling and the counselor was hearing but seems not to be familiar with deaf culture like deaf people's tendencies of doing that stuff. This person signs good but not very involved with deaf children or deaf adults enough.

My suggestion is to get involve with deaf children without using counseloring thingy and get to know each of deaf kids' tendencies. Once you know a little then during the counseling time, you would feel somehow clickable with deaf child while you do know how to make some question to let deaf kids to talk more and make clear.

I wish i could remember what i did but i only remember that i was quiet and stared at him and it was very awkward! He expects me to talk but he didn't give me some hints or threw some simple questions. So i kept quiet and had day dreaming.

Once I become older and went to counserling during college. Funny, it was the same deal that hearing counselor who didn't familiar with deaf culture too. LOL The other time I saw the deaf counselor and it was much better and it was less awkward. It has to do something with the vibes, familiar with deaf culture and make warming up the small talk before we go down to the serious talk.

sorry i dont help much. lol
 
Frisky Feline said:
Yeah i went to counseling and the counselor was hearing but seems not to be familiar with deaf culture like deaf people's tendencies of doing that stuff. This person signs good but not very involved with deaf children or deaf adults enough.

My suggestion is to get involve with deaf children without using counseloring thingy and get to know each of deaf kids' tendencies. Once you know a little then during the counseling time, you would feel somehow clickable with deaf child while you do know how to make some question to let deaf kids to talk more and make clear.

I wish i could remember what i did but i only remember that i was quiet and stared at him and it was very awkward! He expects me to talk but he didn't give me some hints or threw some simple questions. So i kept quiet and had day dreaming.

Once I become older and went to counserling during college. Funny, it was the same deal that hearing counselor who didn't familiar with deaf culture too. LOL The other time I saw the deaf counselor and it was much better and it was less awkward. It has to do something with the vibes, familiar with deaf culture and make warming up the small talk before we go down to the serious talk.

sorry i dont help much. lol
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Actually, that helped a lot. One of the things they teach counselors is that the counseling relationship bears 90% of the responsibility for whether the treatment ends up being effective. In order to develop a relationship with your client, your client has to feel that they are understood and listened to. That means taking their perspective. So you actually hit on a very important point.
 
When I had my first speech and hearing evaluation at the age of 7 years old in Boston I was in a room with a woman and she was talking to me and at the same time she was writing down words I said but they where in a strange code.
When I saw what she was writing I got very set up as I thought she was making fun of the way I spoke! I think people need to be more aware of a child feeling when giving them a speech and hearing evaluation . I can still remember this very clearly years later. The woman could had recorded me and done the speech evaluation when I was not in the room or explain what she was doing.
People should realize children is a lot smarter than they think and aware of what being done and need to know what is going to happen before it happen.
And when you're deaf or HOH you watch what people do all the time. So you try to not hide anything could made a child not feel safe. This how it was for me.
 
jillio said:
Good for you Ildri. You are asking the population that knows what you need to know and asking them to teach you. Commendations for that!
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:ty: ! I certainly don't claim to be an expert on the issues or the culture, far from it, and I want to make sure that I give information that will be the most helpful and appropriate- both for the counselors and any d/Deaf/HoH children they may work with in the future.

Great ideas, everyone! You're giving me some great things to work with. And :ty: to those of you as well who told about personal experiences!
 
I'll give the Annoying Hearing People Stories thread a look as well to give people some ideas on things not to do. I'm sure there are loads that I wouldn't have thought of. Does anyone else have any other ideas of things I should discuss, or threads to look at for ideas?
:ty:
 
The attitude towards the child as if he/she is a "broken" hearing person really does serious damage to the child. Keep that in mind.
 
Maybe a good idea might be to point dhh kids towards dhh programs or schools for the deaf. Make sure that the parents understand that oral skills and "just being HOH" is not a barrier to learning ASL and going to Deaf School/dhh program. I had counseling as a kid, and I would have KILLED to find out that there were dhh programs and that they were hoh friendly.
 
Just an update: I gave the presentation tonight. I talked a little about a *lot* of things, including different levels of hearing loss and different ways people can lose their hearing, things kids with hearing loss might be misdiagnosed with (eg. ADHD if they struggle to follow directions etc), statistics, Deaf culture, everyday difficulties d/Deaf/HoH people face, stereotypes, etc. I gave a list of "DO"s and "DON'T"s for counselors working with d/Deaf/HoH kids.

:ty: for everyone who gave me input on this!

The professor already told me I aced it :D
 
Ildri said:
Just an update: I gave the presentation tonight. I talked a little about a *lot* of things, including different levels of hearing loss and different ways people can lose their hearing, things kids with hearing loss might be misdiagnosed with (eg. ADHD if they struggle to follow directions etc), statistics, Deaf culture, everyday difficulties d/Deaf/HoH people face, stereotypes, etc. I gave a list of "DO"s and "DON'T"s for counselors working with d/Deaf/HoH kids.

:ty: for everyone who gave me input on this!

The professor already told me I aced it :D
Click to expand...

Cool! Glad to hear it!:wave:
 
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