**10. Conclusion**

304 Learning Disabilities

Answers to two Persistence items saw Anthony strongly agree and Jason disagree that the process of self-determination helped him learn to be more self determining, and that mastering speech-reading requires continual practice. Jason believed that "selfdetermination is a trait developed in upbringing through good parenting, social interaction, and personal value. Difficult to develop later in life." This response may allude to the difficulty of acquiring and understanding deafness-specific tactic knowledge – especially without expert instruction. Anthony, however, gave three examples whereby learning to drive, doing taxes, and buying a house require proportionately greater degrees of selfdeterminism because each require exponentially more complex processes. As such, he identifies a key aspect of tactic knowledge being exponentially related to experience

Different responses to a Goodness of Fit item saw Anthony agree and Jason disagree that he had chosen employment whereby deafness is not a problem. Both Jason and Anthony agreed he had made lifestyle choices that suited his strengths. A difference, however, was in the participants' understanding of the concept. Jason simply stated: "Academic and vocational choices and interests", which do not define the active engagement in social or professional settings in which success is likely. In contrast, Anthony provided a 152 word justification that began with "I analyzed my strengths in early childhood and realized that I would have to capitalize on my strengths to be used in a career that did not require hearing skills." Anthony thereafter mentioned that he ignored the advice of "well meaning teachers" who discouraged him to pursue a dentistry career. Now a dentist of 20 years, and having achieved a goodness of fit with personal interests and strengths, Anthony concluded "I look back and think 'what if I were more naïve and allowed my teachers to decide my future job

Responses to two Learned Creativity items were different. Anthony strongly agreed and Jason disagreed that text-based telecommunications (e.g., email, sms, online chat) placed him on a 'level playing field with hearing peers' and that watching captioned DVDs and television programs had improved his social skills. Jason did not perceive text-based telecommunications as an aid for connecting with others when stating "Hearing remains a critical element in vocational and social situations." Anthony, however, wrote that he appreciated the greater ease of social contact through range of text-based telecommunication that was unavailable in his younger years. Jason additionally saw "No relationship between watching captions and socialising", whereas Anthony stated that watching captioned TV/DVD assisted his social development. Captioned TV/DVD bypasses the auditory challenge whereby subtitled dialogue can be read by the deaf person when watching a program. Anthony explained that he "was able to make out irony in spoken lines … and understand how a particular line was inflected and 'read between the lines' if a character was being sarcastic, flippant or joking, or merely making a statement, which I couldn't hear in spoken language." As such, he has creatively learned social nuances and strategies that he can use in face-to-face interaction. Again, we see Anthony's greater understanding of

Two Social Ecologies items received different answers. First, Anthony had close hearing friends throughout his adulthood but Jason had not. Second, Anthony strongly agreed and Jason disagreed that he was sociable with hearing peers. Anthony mentioned that his friends helped him integrate by acting as a 'sounding board' for social situations and by

(Sternberg, 2003).

for me?'"

deafness-specific tactic knowledge.

This chapter emphasized that deaf individuals require deafness-specific tactic knowledge to achieve a healthy mental wellbeing, and quality social and professional participation. The

Deafness-Specific Tactic Knowledge:

individuals living with deafness.

**11. Acknowledgements** 

**12. About the author** 

appreciated.

framework.

children may encounter needless adversity.

A New Understanding of Mental Health, and Social and Professional Participation 307

therefore vital. Without sufficient psychosocial tuition, deaf people and families with deaf

Disability-specific expert performance may today seem an improbable concept. Consider, however, that the English scholar Roger Bacon argued in the thirteenth century that a human required at least thirty years of study to master the mathematics as was then understood (Colvin, 2010). Today, Colvin reminds us, almost every college student has mastered the mathematics Bacon described. Innate human talent has not changed. Rather, the understandings of techniques that foster human potential have considerably improved. Training systems, our education, have become smarter and more efficient to produce mastery in shorter time. Similarly, we may currently assume that the proactive deafnessspecific skills that deaf people use to maximize their potential are so random as to be without possible underlying order. As the research presented here and that of Reiff et al. (1995) attest to, the complex and seemingly random psychosocial skills specific to successfully dealing with a disability can be codified as a systematic and comprehensive

Purposefully seeking to understand strength-based psychosocial attributes and tactics in deaf people is in alignment with the scientific study of the healthy personality and also expert performance. Future research with deaf adults who are achieving social and professional success and quality of life is therefore strongly encouraged. The investigation of positive behaviour offers a richer understanding of human psychology and, importantly, has a prescriptive quality that can be applied to practice. The effect will likely be twofold: we gain a deeper understanding of human potential regarding deafness and we will be able to provide more effective prescriptive measures not yet in practice. Identifying and then cataloguing proactive deafness-specific psychosocial skills may provide additional knowledge to existing programs (e.g., Hetu & Getty, 1991; Heydebrand et al., 2005; Hogan, 2001). Given the seriousness of the social, professional, and psychological challenges reported in the literature, it is also essential that these programs be made widely available in deafness-related education, service delivery, and rehabilitation. The desired outcome: greater social and professional participation, and a healthier mental wellbeing for

The author wishes to thank his PhD supervisors Associate Professor Margaret Brown of the University of Melbourne and Dr Louise Paatsch of Deakin University in Australia. Advice from Dr Anthony Hogan of the Australian National University regarding mental health and deafness was valuable too. Correspondence with Professor Paul Gerber of Virginia Commonwealth University and Professor Henry Reiff of McDaniel University was also

Dr Jacobs graduated with a PhD in Education from the University of Melbourne in 2009. He is the author of *Neither-Nor: A young Australian's experience of deafness,* which portrays the social and romantic challenges of being a deaf person who is neither fully hearing nor has a cultural Deaf identity. He also wrote the award winning column *Psychosocial Potential* 

case studies indicate that deaf individuals require two forms of intelligence to maximize their potential: 1) psychosocial skills expected of the common person in addition to 2) psychosocial skills specific to identifying, circumventing, and mastering deafness-related social challenges. Effective use of pragmatics is an example of psychosocial skills expected of the common person. Knowing the value of watching captioned TV/DVD to understand how social interaction may occur is one example of deafness-specific tactic knowledge. Given their inordinate cognitive, professional, and social challenges, the concept of having to master and to use two types of intelligences makes the feat of human endeavor in successful deaf people remarkable. The case studies further indicate that deafness-specific tactic knowledge is learned just like any other specialized skill. Many years of deliberate practice leads to expert performance in the form of attaining, maintaining, and sustaining quality of life. But if this practice is forfeited, denied, or is of a continuous poor quality, the limitations of deafness may cast a stronghold on the individual's ability to actualize their potential.

The deaf individual's sustained daily efforts to maximize their potential, or quality of life, is the outcome of their mostly unseen psychological processes. In the research of expert performance, this is known as the 'iceberg illusion'; we observe simply an individual's performance - their externalized behavior when interacting with us - which is the metaphorical iceberg's tip (Ericsson & Simon, 1984). Hidden is the submerged evidence of their performance, or direct behavior toward us - the outcome of their cognitive process, or numerous processes, operating concurrently. This unseen quality of human performance may explain why a person without a disability may have difficulty understanding or empathizing with disability-specific psychosocial strategies. They themselves do not use these skills nor contend with disability-related challenges – daily for a lifetime. This issue is of vital importance when considering many, if not most, significant others in a deaf person's life – family, friends, and partners, as well as strangers and acquaintances - are typically not deaf themselves. The same can be said of deafness-related researchers and service providers. A deaf individual's sophisticated hard-earned cognitions and efforts can easily be discounted or overlooked.

According to Gladwell (2009), *opportunity* is the crucial twin to *practice* for potential to be fully maximized. Opportunity consists of a coalition of external factors necessary for the nurturing of an individual's potential. Examples are the accommodations made by parents and the educational system being important factors for optimal psychosocial functioning whether the deaf child had a CI or not (Leigh et al., 2009). While an absolute necessity for potential maximization, the provision of opportunity - commonly worded as providing 'access' in the disability literature - can have a flaw. It can assume that access – in the form of services or improved hearing technology - will translate instantly into participation for the individual. Much, however, is dependent on the quality of service provision or social interaction *when access is gained*. For example, access to a psychologist – an expert in their own right – may be a futile venture for a deaf client if the psychologist knows nothing of the specialized psychosocial skills for identifying, circumventing, or mastering deafness-related challenges (Jacobs, 2007). Without adequate support, deaf children can be vulnerable to isolation within their own families or schools and be deemed 'problem children' (Fellinger et al., 2005). People who become deaf in adulthood can face a similar predicament in the workplace, and in their social and romantic endeavors. Quality of service provision is therefore vital. Without sufficient psychosocial tuition, deaf people and families with deaf children may encounter needless adversity.

Disability-specific expert performance may today seem an improbable concept. Consider, however, that the English scholar Roger Bacon argued in the thirteenth century that a human required at least thirty years of study to master the mathematics as was then understood (Colvin, 2010). Today, Colvin reminds us, almost every college student has mastered the mathematics Bacon described. Innate human talent has not changed. Rather, the understandings of techniques that foster human potential have considerably improved. Training systems, our education, have become smarter and more efficient to produce mastery in shorter time. Similarly, we may currently assume that the proactive deafnessspecific skills that deaf people use to maximize their potential are so random as to be without possible underlying order. As the research presented here and that of Reiff et al. (1995) attest to, the complex and seemingly random psychosocial skills specific to successfully dealing with a disability can be codified as a systematic and comprehensive framework.

Purposefully seeking to understand strength-based psychosocial attributes and tactics in deaf people is in alignment with the scientific study of the healthy personality and also expert performance. Future research with deaf adults who are achieving social and professional success and quality of life is therefore strongly encouraged. The investigation of positive behaviour offers a richer understanding of human psychology and, importantly, has a prescriptive quality that can be applied to practice. The effect will likely be twofold: we gain a deeper understanding of human potential regarding deafness and we will be able to provide more effective prescriptive measures not yet in practice. Identifying and then cataloguing proactive deafness-specific psychosocial skills may provide additional knowledge to existing programs (e.g., Hetu & Getty, 1991; Heydebrand et al., 2005; Hogan, 2001). Given the seriousness of the social, professional, and psychological challenges reported in the literature, it is also essential that these programs be made widely available in deafness-related education, service delivery, and rehabilitation. The desired outcome: greater social and professional participation, and a healthier mental wellbeing for individuals living with deafness.
