Personality Assessment of the Prelingual, Profoundly Deaf Child or Adolescent

Abstract

Personality assessment of children and adolescents experiencing an early, profound hearing loss is hampered by the lack of instruments standardized and/or developed primarily for use with deaf clients. Further compounding the problem are the relatively few psychologists trained in and/or experienced with deaf personality assessment. This article reviews the rudimentary requirements for personality assessment with the deaf and critiques the available personality tests that are either used or useable in assessing the deaf.

History and context of psychological assessment in rehabilitation psychology.

“…This last-mentioned study found not only a characteristic psychometric profile, but also evidence that such profiles are affected by administration procedures and by the use of norms that are based on people who were deaf (versus the standardization sample). In a review of personality assessment tools used with children and adolescents who are deaf, Cates and Lapham (1991) emphasized not only the lack of instruments developed for such applications, but also the lack of reliability and validity studies.…”