**6. Psychosocial skills and social participation**

To illustrate the proposed phenomenon of two types of psychosocial skill sets required of a deaf individual to maximize their potential, it is perhaps helpful to review themes in the following studies. These studies are grouped according to the roles of five themes relating to the acquisition of tactic knowledge: 1) spoken language and cognitive capacity, 2) the onset of deafness as impacting on psychosocial performance, 3) the pre-existing lack of psychosocial development despite improved hearing through cochlear implantation, 4) parenting and deafness-specific tactic knowledge, and 5) the idea that deafness-specific tactic knowledge can be taught through expert tuition.

Studies by Roberts, Brown, and Rickards (1996) and Brown et al. (2000) of pre-schoolers show that the deaf participants appeared to lack tactic knowledge when compared with hearing participants. The studies were of entry behaviors into play groups. Hearing children appeared to be more innovative with entry behaviors when met with resistance from the play group. These persistence strategies commonly saw the child eventually gaining acceptance. The deaf children, however, tended to use the same strategies regardless of previous failure. As such, their comparative lack of tactic knowledge saw them being continually rejected by the play group. It is probable that less-than-perfect hearing had restricted the deaf children's acquisition of language. Hearing children have the advantage of learning through their greater listening capacity to acquire and use effective tactic knowledge. Another factor is worth considering: pre-schoolers are yet to develop their powers of concentration, attention, and cognitive reasoning. Trying to make sense of the situation – particularly with the additional challenge of deafness – may be beyond the capacity of the human brain at this age. Furthermore, deaf preadolescents are yet to acquire the numerous hours of practice necessary to produce consistent optimal social outcomes for themselves.

Studies have further indicated that the later the onset of deafness the poorer was the participants' psychosocial adjustment (de Graaf & Bijl, 2002; Polat, 2003; Powers, 2003). For example, de Graff and Bijl's study with 23 deaf adult participants found that more postlingually than pre-lingually deaf participants experienced daily deafness-related problems. Participants who acquired deafness after the age of three were more likely to report mental distress than participants who were deaf prior to that age. Mental distress was also linked with communication problems, lower self-esteem, inferior speech-reading competence, and

such mastery occurs, the individual will have the mental resources for coping with new challenges associated with the process or task. It is through active risk taking and continual interpersonal engagement that individuals develop tactic or practical knowledge in diverse social settings. Otherwise, successful social or professional participation cannot occur (see Sternberg & Wagner, 1986). Individuals who avoid engagement, or to overly seek protection in parents, an organization, or peer group, are more likely to experience negative cognitive and social outcomes when confronting adversity (Sternberg, 1988). The reason: they have not practiced or developed the psychosocial skills necessary for optimal functioning. As Kentish (2007) noted, parents who shelter their deaf child from emotionally or socially awkward situations (e.g., as an interpreter or negotiator) can compromise their child's opportunities, and therefore ability, to develop coping skills. Parental overprotection can

To illustrate the proposed phenomenon of two types of psychosocial skill sets required of a deaf individual to maximize their potential, it is perhaps helpful to review themes in the following studies. These studies are grouped according to the roles of five themes relating to the acquisition of tactic knowledge: 1) spoken language and cognitive capacity, 2) the onset of deafness as impacting on psychosocial performance, 3) the pre-existing lack of psychosocial development despite improved hearing through cochlear implantation, 4) parenting and deafness-specific tactic knowledge, and 5) the idea that deafness-specific

Studies by Roberts, Brown, and Rickards (1996) and Brown et al. (2000) of pre-schoolers show that the deaf participants appeared to lack tactic knowledge when compared with hearing participants. The studies were of entry behaviors into play groups. Hearing children appeared to be more innovative with entry behaviors when met with resistance from the play group. These persistence strategies commonly saw the child eventually gaining acceptance. The deaf children, however, tended to use the same strategies regardless of previous failure. As such, their comparative lack of tactic knowledge saw them being continually rejected by the play group. It is probable that less-than-perfect hearing had restricted the deaf children's acquisition of language. Hearing children have the advantage of learning through their greater listening capacity to acquire and use effective tactic knowledge. Another factor is worth considering: pre-schoolers are yet to develop their powers of concentration, attention, and cognitive reasoning. Trying to make sense of the situation – particularly with the additional challenge of deafness – may be beyond the capacity of the human brain at this age. Furthermore, deaf preadolescents are yet to acquire the numerous hours of practice necessary to produce consistent optimal social outcomes for

Studies have further indicated that the later the onset of deafness the poorer was the participants' psychosocial adjustment (de Graaf & Bijl, 2002; Polat, 2003; Powers, 2003). For example, de Graff and Bijl's study with 23 deaf adult participants found that more postlingually than pre-lingually deaf participants experienced daily deafness-related problems. Participants who acquired deafness after the age of three were more likely to report mental distress than participants who were deaf prior to that age. Mental distress was also linked with communication problems, lower self-esteem, inferior speech-reading competence, and

result in the child remaining dependent, passive, and socially immature.

**6. Psychosocial skills and social participation** 

tactic knowledge can be taught through expert tuition.

themselves.

lesser acceptance of deafness-related psychosocial problems. Onset of deafness places certain demands on an individual's cognitive capacity. The tactic knowledge they acquired and executed as a 'hearing person' prior to their deafness is not enough; mastery of a new additional set of deafness-specific tactic knowledge is required for their potential to be maximized. One example of a deafness-specific skill is speech-reading - a learned skill that takes much practising, and therefore time, to master (Arnold, 1997).

Many hearing parents of deaf children have additionally reported stress and anxiety regarding the increased social demands during their deaf child's adolescence (e.g., difficulties with group conversations and fitting in a social group) (Hintermair, 2006; Hyde et al., 2009). Polat (2003) further found that deaf participants with deaf parents were better adjusted than were deaf participants with hearing parents. Hintermair additionally reported that deaf mothers were less stressed than were hearing mothers of deaf children. Reported high stress levels in the hearing mothers may be a consequence of them not having access to, or possessing, knowledge of the skills required to identify, circumvent, or master deafnessrelated psychosocial challenges. Hearing parents typically 'start from scratch' with little or no pre-existing experience of deafness. Deaf parents, by contrast, have first-hand experience of deafness. They are therefore more likely to be conversant and resourceful with deafnessspecific knowledge to instruct and nurture their deaf children than are hearing parents. For example, Meadow-Orlans (1990) observed that deaf parents tend to grant their deaf children independence and are less anxious to about their child's ability to navigate the world. As Ericsson et al. (2006) reasoned, expert tuition is essential for the nurturing of specialized performance. Polat also speculated that hearing parents may exert "strong parental control which reinforces passivity rather than active exploration" (p. 331) in their deaf children. Active exploration links with Sternberg's (2003) idea that experience is necessary for the acquisition and optimal functioning of tactic knowledge.

Several studies report varying degrees of social skills functioning and social participation in children with CIs (Bat-Chava & Deignan, 2001; Bat-Chava Martin, & Kosciw, 2005; Punch & Hyde, 2011). Cochlear implantation in profoundly deaf people brings their hearing capacity into the speech range and has been found to improve their social interaction (Hogan et al., 2001). While cochlear implantation can improve a deaf individual' speech retention, it does not necessarily translate directly into improved social participation (Punch & Hyde, 2011; Leigh et al., 2009; Schorr, 2006). For example, Schorr found that children implanted at older ages were more likely to report loneliness, were slower to adjust, and had difficulties achieving feelings of belongingness at school than were children implanted at earlier ages. Despite an improved hearing capacity gained through a CI, the individual may have preexisting maladaptive behaviors associated with their deafness. However, Bat-Chava et al. report that developmentally delayed deaf children had achieved significant progress in ageappropriate development of communication, socialization, and daily living skills after years of hearing aid or CI use. According to the authors, deaf children's communication and social skills may be improved through CIs. Another possibility is that deafness-specific tactic knowledge develops over time through practice. According to Ericsson et al. (1993), deliberate practice is time consuming but essential for expert performance.

Findings in de Graff and Bijl's (2002) study indicated that the improvement of communication skills in a variety of situations could help avert mental health problems in deaf adults. Books by Glickman (2008) and Hogan (2001) contain a diverse range of

Deafness-Specific Tactic Knowledge:

**Internal Decisions**

summary of Reiff et al.'s framework appears below:

achieve professional and social outcomes.

social and professional situations.

proactive behavioral outcomes.

techniques, methods, or aids.

potential and were currently employed.

**External Manifestations**

adversity.

A New Understanding of Mental Health, and Social and Professional Participation 299

role as being both independent of and also inherent within the seven other themes. A

**Control**: is controlling one's own destiny, both in real time interaction and with general

**Desire**: is putting motivation into action and also describes the individual's endeavor to

**Goal Orientation**: is the purposeful planning and pursuit of short- or long-term goals in

**Reframing**: is purposefully challenging negative thought processes in order to create

**Persistence**: is proactively dealing with immediate or long-term disability-related

**Learned Creativity:** is the use of various disability-specific compensatory strategies,

**Goodness of Fit**: is choosing social environments that suit personal strengths and/ or

**Social Ecologies:** is initiating and maintaining relationships of varying degrees of

My PhD research used Reiff et al.'s (1995) framework to observe how deaf participants maximize their social and professional potential (Jacobs, 2009). Although numerous deaf adults have achieved prominence in a variety of professions, scarce research has been systematically undertaken to understand how their success is attained. The review of the literature suggested that the aforementioned eight themes in Reiff et al.'s framework could be applied to a deafness context (see Jacobs, 2010). In other words, deaf people likely use tactic knowledge specific to identifying, circumventing, or mastering social and professional deafness-related challenges. Unlike Reiff et al.'s (1995) study, my study sought to compare the psychosocial competencies in deaf adult participants with a control sample of adult participants without a disability (Jacobs, 2009). This exploratory study was with 49 deaf (n = 30) and hearing (n = 19) adult participants who were residing in America, Australia, England, and South Africa. All participants regarded themselves as maximizing their

Survey items were created for both quantitative and qualitative analyses. In order to conduct statistical analyses, Reiff at al.'s framework was modified so that the eight psychosocial themes combined to create the overall outcome of Potential Maximization (see Jacobs, 2010). The theme of Control was assigned to an independent thematic category mostly to reduce the ambiguity of Reiff et al.'s definition of the theme. This adaptation

avoiding or minimizing entry into settings where success is unlikely.

Table 1. Reiff et al.'s (1995) framework of proactive cognitive and social tactics

intimacy to gain the assistance or emotional support of others.

life circumstances, through use of proactive thinking strategies and social skills.

prescriptive communication and psychosocial skills specific to deafness-related social challenges. The value of Glickman's text is that it makes cognitive behavioral therapy accessible to low functioning deaf individuals and also to deaf people whose first language is SL. Hogan's communication skills program adapted the Hearing and Listening Skills Program published by Hetu and Getty (1991) - perhaps the most acknowledged intervention for deaf people to enhance their management of everyday difficulties (Heydebrand et al., 2005). Hogan's program aims to equip deaf people with 1) problem identification, 2) problem exploration, and 3) problem resolution. Many excellent deafness-specific strategies are provided. Hogan's program was additionally adapted for a study by Heydebrand et al. Adaptation of the program included enhancement of communication skills through cognitive behavioral techniques designed to positively reframe the participants' negative assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs associated with their deafness. Participants were taught to identify the emotional reasons and consequences of why they might not, or should, initiate strategies (e.g., asking to turn down loud music at a party to improve conversational ease). These are examples of deafness-specific tactic knowledge. Heydebrand et al. found that the psychosocial skills program proved effective to the study's participants, which highlights the value of specialist tuition in the nurturing of expert performance (Ericsson et al., 1993). Without question, the aforementioned books and programs have covered much ground regarding the understanding and prescription of deafness-specific tactic knowledge. But a systematic and comprehensive framework of proactive deafness-specific tactic knowledge may further improve our understanding of deaf people's social and professional participation and mental wellbeing.
