This section is intended to list trainings as they become available but also to act as a directory of who has presented on various topics in the past, in case you want to contact them for your organization.
~ Because many deaf children are born to families with hearing parents, deaf children have a greater chance of not having access to strong language role models during the critical period of their language development.
There are some unique considerations when working with patients who are Deaf, DeafBlind, or hard-of-hearing. It is easy for clinicians to misdiagnose patients based on the language they are seeing, not recognizing that language dysfluency or language deprivation may be the cause for it instead of an actual mental health disorder.
If you are a clinician who has never worked with a Deaf patient before, please meet with the interpreter before or after to ask about behaviors that seem unusual to you. There could be cultural or linguistic reasons for the behavior and the interpreter can give you their professional reflection.
Knowing when a person was deafened can give you a sense of how savvy they may or may not be with English. (For example, if they were deafened at the age of eight they likely already have a basic understanding of the grammatical rules of the language spoken in their home during those first 8 years.)
"Non-specialized crisis counselors must first recognize that they are working through an interpreter. If aware, they must then constantly evaluate whether they are assessing the deaf person or the interpreter."
