PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDER IN DEAF AND HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN AND YOUNG-PEOPLE - A PREVALENCE STUDY

Psychiatric screening questionnaires for deaf children and adolescents were piloted in a group of 62 children, aged 11-16 years, attending a residential school. The questionnaires, Parent's Checklist (PCL) and Teacher's Checklist (TCL) were then used to screen a group of 93 child ren attending one Deaf School and three Hearing Impaired Units (HIU). Psychiatric assessments were conducted with a highly structured diagno stic interview, the Child Assessment Schedule (CAS). The interview wit h signing deaf children was conducted with a sign language interpreter . The prevalence of psychiatric disorder in the whole group was 50.3%, 42.4% in the group attending the Deaf School and 60.9% for the group attending the HIUs. An aetiological model of psychiatric disorder in t his group is proposed.