Marta Montanini Manfredi
Università di Parma

The psychologist interested in deafness and particularly in deaf children needs
to address two main questions; one is general, the other specific. The first one
can be expressed in Hilde Schlesinger's ( 1978) words:

Does the absence of early auditory stimulation, feedback and communication in
itself create a propensity toward (these) behavioral and achievement patterns, or
does early profound deafness elicit particular responses from parents, teachers,
siblings and friends that contribute a particular set of cognitive and behavioral defi-
ciencies? (p. 20)

That is, can deafness constitute a risk in the psychological development of those
who are affected by it?

The second question is more specific: How can the hearers understand the
deaf children and what attitudes should they adopt toward them? Clinical reflec-
tion on these issues is dated. The answers given to the question of whether
we can speak of a psychology of deaf people, both at the cognitive and per-
sonality levels, are many and contradictory (for an exhaustive review, see
Boulanger-Balleyguier & Lavalou, 1977; Harris, 1978; Lane, 1988; Moores,
1978). Deafness can be considered a quasi-experimental condition. As such,
it has served as the context for research that has implications at the more general
level of psychological developmental processes. The relationship between
thought and verbal language, or between language and impulse control, the con-
nection of perceptual activity to emotions decoding, or to social and emotional

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