Edgerly, John

Mulkey, Wayne

Walker, Martha Lentz

Walker, Robert

Woodrick, William E.

English

Western Connecticut State University: WestCollections - digitalcommons@wcsu

JADARA 
Volume 11 Number 4 Article 6 
October 2019 
A Training Program for Counselors of the Deaf: Merging 
Communication Skills 
Martha Lentz Walker 
Associate Professor, Kent State University 
William E. Woodrick 
Associate Professor, The University of Tennessee 
John Edgerly 
Associate Director of the University of Tennessee Student Counseling Center 
Wayne Mulkey 
Instructor at Florida State University, Tallahassee 
Robert Walker 
Executive Director, Kevin Coleman Mental Health Center, Kent, Ohio 
Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.wcsu.edu/jadara 
Recommended Citation 
Walker, M. L., Woodrick, W. E., Edgerly, J., Mulkey, W., & Walker, R. (2019). A Training Program for 
Counselors of the Deaf: Merging Communication Skills. JADARA, 11(4). Retrieved from 
https://repository.wcsu.edu/jadara/vol11/iss4/6 
A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR COUNSELORS OF THE DEAF:
MERGING COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Martha Lentz Walker, Ed.D.
William E. Woodrick, M.S.
John Edgerly, Ed.D.
Wayne Mulkey, M.S.
Robert Walker, Ed.D.
introduction
Circulating among educators and coun
selors of the deaf brings an incongruity in
their philosophy and practice sharply to
attention. Though the philosophy says the
deaf person's dignity as an individual must
be preserved, practitioners are heard to refer
to "our deaf" in a very paternalistic fashion.
The statement is frequently made that
"counselors can never close a deaf case; the
deaf will always be dependent." This expec
tation of dependency and attitude of pater
nalism is not compatible with the goal of
dignity. If a counselor genuinely believes in
the deaf person as a human being, capable of
independence, he or she will not make
decisions for the deaf client. Instead, the
counselor will be working to teach the deaf
client skills necessary to function indepen
dently.
The right of deaf clients to be heard and
involved in their rehabilitation is now law.
An individualized Written Rehabilitation
Plan (IWRP) requires planning with the
client. Quality services delivered by highly
qualified people is implicit in this new stand
ard. Though writers have for years advocated
the deaf individual's development of his own
goals (e.g., Sanderson, 1974), no instruction
for how that could be accomplished has
been given counselors.
A convenient excuse for the lack of
involvement of clients in their rehabilitation
has been the language difficulty. As long as
counselors can identify the major problem
of the deaf client as his inability to commun
icate orally, they do not have to believe in
the possibility of independence. Training for
counselors has reflected this preoccupation
with the oral language barrier, with counse
lors being regularly trained in manual com-
cunication skills. Competency for counselors
seemed to have been defined as their ability
to sign, and though proficiency in manual
communication does increase the probability
of understanding the client and his expecta
tions, it does not insure the understanding of
his feelings or experience of his world. In
recent discussions of the implications of the
IWRP, regional experts agreed that this new
feature would require "real involvement of
the deaf person in the development of a
rehabilitation program for him" (The
Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and
Dr. M. Walker is Associate Professor, Kent State University; Mr. Woodrick is Associate Professor, The University
of Tennessee; Dr. Degerly is Associate Director of the University of Tennessee Student Counseling Center; Mr.
Mulkey is Instructor at Florida State University, Tallahassee; and Dr. R. Walker is Executive Director, Kevin
Coleman Mental Health Center, Kent, Ohio.
Vol. 11 No. 4 April 1978 11
1
Walker et al.: A Training Program for Counselors of the Deaf: Merging Communicat
Published by WestCollections: digitalcommons@wcsu, 1978
A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR COUNSELORS OF THE DEAF
services for the severely handicapped deaf,
1974), but identified only the need for
manual communication skills to facilitate
this involvement. Consequently, counselors
continue to dodge their responsibility for
involving clients in choices and teaching
them how to make their own decisions by
pointing to the communication difficulty.
The problem does not lie solely in commun
ication, but in the skill of entering the deaf
person's frame of reference.
An awareness of the necessity of helping
skills in conjunction with manual communi
cation skills is the first step for a counselor
who is affirming his belief in the dignity of
the deaf person. The counselor would find
some substantial support for the need of
this dual skill from writers who assert that
"self-actualization is identified as the goal of
all counseling" (Mathews, 1974, p. 32),
and that "interpersonal communication is
not only the key to intellectual comprehen
sion, but also a medium for the free expres
sion of feelings and emotions" (Chough,
1970, p. 9). However, no means or program
for teaching the counselor these skills need
ed to facilitate self-actualization or interper
sonal communication has been suggested.
With an awareness of the necessity of
combining helping skills with manual com
munication skills comes the frightening
awareness of the effect of having one with
out the other. It is quite evident how sub-
stractive to the interpersonal exchange a
lack of manual communication skills is, but
the lack of helping skill for someone who
has manual communication skills is less vis-
ible-but no less substractive. Most counselors
could probably recount horror stories of
clients who were exploited in various ways
because they trusted someone who could
communicate manually with them. Manual
communication can be used for better or
worse. Just because the counselor has the
skill to communicate manually does not give
him the right to tinker with a deaf person's
life, unless he has the companion helping
skill to foster independency. A counselor
who does not know how to involve a client
in his own rehabilitation, through an under
standing of his situation and his aspirations,
can only foster dependency.
There is certainly a need for qualified
persons who have at least minimal skill in
communication and helping. The manpower
need for persons to help deaf persons has
been documented (Professional manpower
recruitment and training in the area of
vocational rehabilitation of the deaf: needs
and recommendations, 1971). The need for
helping skills in delivering services to deaf
persons has also been detailed (Sachs,
Trybus, Koch, Falberg, 1974; Reddan,
1974). It is not difficult to comprehend how
deaf persons have been listened to least, and
thus should have the very best of helpers in
order to be heard, strengthened, and equip
ped for independence. Until now, the frus
tration of those aware of the need for
helping skills, as well as manual communica
tion skills, has been the lack of a well-
defined process to effectively counsel the
deaf client Reddan (1974) insisted that the
client must be treated as an important
source of information about himself, but
was at a loss to suggest how that source
could be tapped. In their closing remarks,
the distinguished panel earlier referenced
(The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of
1973 and services for the severely handicap
ped deaf, 1974) summarized by saying:
We see a need for quality counseling
services at all levels. There is an urgent
need for a free exchange of ideas. It
is not a matter of right or wrong
counseling techniques. We must all
make a concerted effort to learn as
much as we can from those counsel
ors who have demonstrated effective
counseling techniques in their partic
ular setting, (p. 130)
The need for a counseling model which
provides the "How" of understanding the
deaf client's perception of himself, his
world, and his goals is indeed urgent.
12 Vol. 11 No. 4 April 1978 2
JADARA, Vol. 11, No. 4 [1978], Art. 6
https://repository.wcsu.edu/jadara/vol11/iss4/6
A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR COUNSELORS OF THE DEAF
Background of the Study
The Human Resource Development
(HRD) model of Robert R. Carkhuff (1969,
1971) has proved effective with a wide
variety of helpee populations. As a highly
structured training modality, it appeared to
have particular promise as a means of deliv
ering helping skills to counselors of deaf
persons. A regional planning committee of
HEW decided in the winter of 1974 to pro
vide short-term training for counselors of
deaf clients using the HRD model. During
the conference the appropriateness of the
HRD model for counseling the "low-verbal
deaf" was to be assessed. The five day con
ference was divided into two segments:
three days for skill training in helping, two
days for improving manual communication
skills. Two separate teams of trainers/
instructors were designated to implement
the conference plan. The integration of
counselors who were themselves deaf was
basic to the plan, and one-fourth of the
total group of trainees were deaf counselors.
Three of four trainers for the HRD model
segment had been trained by Carkhuff
Associates, the training contingent of the
author of the HRD model. The two.instruc
tors for manual communication skills were
highly respected, nationally known profes
sionals working with the "low-verbal deaf."
To insure communication for the entire
group, four interpreters were added to the
staff and participated in all training.
Procedures
Forty rehabilitation counselors serving
low verbal deaf clients met at The University
of Tennessee at Knoxville in July, 1974.
Each participant was mailed The Art of
Helping several weeks before the conference
began, with the instructions to complete its
reading before coming to the workshop.
Situation specific stimulus statements
were developed for use with the counselors,
each reflecting a problem typically encoun
tered in counseling low-verbal deaf clients.
Twenty-one hours were spent in training
sessions which followed the "Tell-Show-Do"
strategy and included attending, observing,
listening, responding, and personalizing
modules. Program development was intro
duced and practiced minimally by partici
pants developing programs for transfer of
helping skills to their work situations. Large
group sessions were utilized for the "Tell
and Show" steps; small groups were em
ployed for participant skill practice. Small
groups were assigned on the basis of pre
testing, with the exception of the place
ment of deaf counselors in each small
group. An interpreter was assigned to
each group to facilitate participation by
the deaf counselor(s).
Outcome
Placing deaf counselors in small practice
groups proved advantageous for both hearing
and deaf counselors. By using printed mater
ials (The Art of Helping), deaf counselors
could supplement training as necessary.
Training was somewhat slowed by communi
cation needs, however, the visual-graphic
system used forced precision in the selection
of "feeling words." The richness of manual
communication as a mode for expressing
feeling was noted by hearing participants.
Dimensions of motion, rate, and spatial
relationship were added with manual expres
sion. All deaf participants showed better
than average (in the total group) gain scores
in discrimination and communication. In
addition, hearing counselors profited from
manual communication practice within small
groups.
Twenty-one hours of modular training
produced significant process positive change
in each of the conference participants, as
measured by pre-and post-training rating
scale comparisons. Though pretest scores
were elevated in approximately 50% of the
participants, this proved to be an index of
participant preparation (reading The Art of
Helping). As predicted, participants were
oriented toward skill acquisition, working
Vol. 11 No. 4 April 1978 13 3
Walker et al.: A Training Program for Counselors of the Deaf: Merging Communicat
Published by WestCollections: digitalcommons@wcsu, 1978
A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR COUNSELORS OF THE DEAF
with minimal breaks for long hours. This
was a group that valued delivery. Several
sources of evaluation, including self-report
immediately following the conference, inter
views with selected participants three
months following the conference, and a
request for further training by the grantee,
indicated positive attitudinal response to
short-term HRD training.
Transfer of HRD training to a situation
involving low verbal deaf clients and leader
ship with a different goal (increased skill in
manual communication) was sampled two
days after HRD training was completed.
Without specific instruction to apply HRD
skills as well as manual communication
skills, participants employed information
seeking behaviors almost exclusively. Attend
ing behavior had dropped to a minimal level.
Conclusions
The systematic, multi-modal, experien-
tially based training modules of HRD appear
particularly effective with both hearing and
deaf counselors with specialized case loads
of deaf clients. Training materials (The Art
of Helping) were well received and interest
in other materials (The Art of Career Devel
opment, The Art of Problem Solving) was
evident. A specialty skill proved to be pre
dictive of training performance.
Program development for skill integra
tion was indicated by observation of parti
cipant performance during subsequent (non
HRD) training. Transfer must be program
med, particularly when skills have an oppo-
sitional element, such as the information-
getting nature of manual communication
and the responsive set of HRD.
Discussion
The effectiveness of HRD helping
modules and materials in training counselors
of low verbal deaf clients was evident. Both
deaf and hearing participants showed skill
gains in a short-term training effort. The
success of the three-day conference was
partly due to the participants, self-selected
to work with low verbal deaf clients, and
skill-oriented. Having the specialty skill
manual communication predisposed this
group to acquisition of helping skills. The
specificity of the responsive formal used in
HRD appeared particularly suited to the low
verbal deaf population. As feeling was
expressed manually, it seemed better des
cribed by the numerous dimensions of mime
than by spoken language.
Lack of transfer immediately following
training in a learning situation with a differ
ent skill focus indicates the need for team
work of trainers with specialty skills.
Helping skills could have been reinforced
had careful program development included
trainer planning for blending of complemen
tary skills.
Conclusions
The appropriateness of the HRD model
for counseling with deaf clients and for
training counselors of deaf clients was sup
ported in this study. Revision and adapta
tion of the conference format and skills
emphasis was suggested. It was evident that
counselors of deaf clients can learn, in a
short length of time, basic helping skills
which would enable them to enter the deaf
client's experience and incorporate his
values and feelings into personalized goals.
Strategies for maintenance of these skills
in the agency must be developed, as well as
additional training to insure continued
growth of the counselors in helping skill.
The HRD model seems to hold many of
the "How?" answers for those concerned
with the merging of communication skills.
Counselors can no longer overlook their
responsibility to include clients in their
rehabilitation planning, for a vehicle for
inclusion has been specified. The counselor
who believes in the ability of the deaf client
to direct his own life will work diligently at
developing both communication skills.
14 Vol. 11 No. 4 April 1978 4
JADARA, Vol. 11, No. 4 [1978], Art. 6
https://repository.wcsu.edu/jadara/vol11/iss4/6
A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR COUNSELORS OF THE DEAF
REFERENCES
Carkhuff, R.R. Helping and Human Relations, New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969.
Carkhuff, R.R. The Development of Human Resources, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1971.
Carkhuff, R.R. The Art of Helping, Amherst, Mass.: HRD Press, 1973.
Chough, S. Challenge of psychiatric social work with the deaf. Journal of Rehabilitation of the
Deaf, 3, 4, 1970, 7-25.
Mathews, G. Preparing for counseling with the deaf client in the vocational training setting.
Journal of Rehabilitation of the Deaf, 7, 4, 1974, 29-33.
Professional manpower recruitment and training in the area of vocational rehabilitation of the
deaf: needs and recommendations, Journai of Rehabilitation of the Deaf, 5, 2, 1971, 6-14.
Reddan, R. Counseling the severely handicapped deaf person. Journal of Rehabilitation of the
Deaf, 8, 1, 1974, 115-1212.
Sanderson, R.G. A personal theory of counseling. Journal of Rehabilitation of the Deaf, 7, 4,
1974,22-28.
The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and services for the severely handicapped deaf ( a
panel d\scuss\on), Journal of Rehabilitation of die Deaf, 8, 1, 1974, 106-109.
Vol. 11 No.4 April1978 15
5
Walker et al.: A Training Program for Counselors of the Deaf: Merging Communicat
Published by WestCollections: digitalcommons@wcsu, 1978


A Training Program for Counselors of the Deaf: Merging Communication Skills

https://repository.wcsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2528&context=jadara

A Training Program for Counselors of the Deaf: Merging Communication Skills

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Western Connecticut State University: WestCollections - digitalcommons@wcsu