PSYCHOLOGICAL MAINTENANCE OF STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENTS AS CONDITION OF THEIR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The aim of this article is to summarize the practical experience of psychological support of students with
hearing impairments and to analyze some aspects of counseling and diagnostic work with them.
Having conducted a comprehensive psychodiagnostic work with students with hearing impairments, we
made certain generalizations. The first thing is that setting up the contact with such students is a complex
process that requires more energy and time than working with their hearing peers. The second thing is that
in the process of psychological diagnostics of students with hearing impairments, there may appear some
difficulties, connected with the perception and understanding the texts of questionnaires and instructions
of tasks. Therefore, the psychologist must take into account the limitations of such students’ vocabulary and,
if possible, to simplify the text material which they have to work with. The third thing is that there are certain
phenomena of objective reality, which are denoted by hearing-impaired students through the signs of the sign
language and which do not have verbal expression at all. That is why such phenomena cannot be recorded
in written form. In the process of selection and adaptation of psychodiagnostic tools for working with people
who have hearing impairment, practical psychologist should take into consideration all this information.
The main feature of psychological counseling of students who have hearing impairment and at the same time
its main restriction is the necessity of mediation of this process. Interaction between a psychologist and a client
in this case can be held in the presence of a translator-dactylologist, or with the help of technical means
(for example the on-line correspondence). Both of these methods have significant limitations. Therefore,
the psychologist-consultant, who constantly works with deaf clients, should learn and master the sign
language.
Prospects of further work in this area are connected with the development and testing of specific tools
for psychological diagnostics of people who have hearing impairments, and also with more detailed studying
of their personal characteristics.