Nickoloff, Elia G

English

Western Connecticut State University: WestCollections - digitalcommons@wcsu

JADARA 
Volume 6 Number 2 Article 29 
November 2019 
Training in Diagnostics and Evaluation for the Specialist in 
Deafness Rehabilitation 
Elia G. Nickoloff 
Rehabilitation Counseling with the Deaf Coordinator, University of Arizona 
Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.wcsu.edu/jadara 
Recommended Citation 
Nickoloff, E. G. (2019). Training in Diagnostics and Evaluation for the Specialist in Deafness 
Rehabilitation. JADARA, 6(2). Retrieved from https://repository.wcsu.edu/jadara/vol6/iss2/29 
TRAINING IN DIAGNOSTICS AND EVALUATION
FOR THE SPECIALIST IN
DEAFNESS REHABILITATION
By ELIA G. NICKOLOFF, Coordinator, Rehabilitation Counseling with the
Deaf, University of Arizona
When one speaks of the subject of diagnosis and evaluation, the
question immediately coming to mind is, "Where does the counselor fit into
this scheme?"
My talk today will give my impression not only where the counselor fits
into the scheme, but how the client, counselor and evaluator can work
together for optimal rehabilitation.
The client is referred to the counselor because he has a need or a
problem and he hopes the counselor may help him with it. He comes to the
counselor with certain basic qualities and he has certain fears, anxieties and
expectations. He may come in with a very low verbal vocabulary, restricting
his communication to signs and gestures. Words with which he is familiar
may often be misspelled.
The counselor, on his side, must have an understanding of the common,'
difficulties of his clients and be prepared to cope with them. By being
prepared it is meant that the counselor must have a thorough understanding
of the psychosocial aspects of deafness; he must be fully aware of thg
language and communication barriers brought on by the disability; and b/e
must be skillful enough to communicate with his client on any level and by
any method. Communication is so essential that if the counselor does nbt
possess those skills he is doing an injustice by even attempting to serve liis
client.
I might add here that our counselors do not work with deaf people.
Rather, they work with people who are deaf. There is a distinction. To iise
the term "deaf people", the counselor opens the way to a stereotyped
individual who is subject to prescribed evaluation and diagnosis and all too
often is squeezed, kicking and fighting into a mold in which he does; not
belong. That may explain in some measure why almost every other deaf linan
you meet is, in some way, connected with printing. Far too seldom doe^ the
counselor look at a person as an individual who has particular qualities and
needs that are unique to him and who is different from anyone else. Wt the
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Nickoloff: Training in Diagnostics and Evaluation for the Specialist in Deaf
Published by WestCollections: digitalcommons@wcsu, 1972
TRAINING IN DIAGNOSTICS AND EVALUATION FOR THE SPECIALIST
University, the counselors are taught that each person he comes in contact
with is first an individual and secondly a person who happens to be deaf.
Without trying to address myself to a particular client group, I would
say it is rare when you cannot obtain some previously gathered data on a
client whether it be educational, vocational, psychological or social. It is
during the crucial initial interviewing phase of the rehabilitation process that
the counselor can be most facilitative or harmful to his client. This is where
he and his client must become involved on a strong impersonal level, and to
do this communication must flow as smoothly as possible.
The counselor must be willing to make an emotional investment in the
person and together they must make decisions on the validity of the
previously gathered data. Together they must decide what other areas, such
as vocational, psychological, social, educational or interpersonal, require
further exploration and evaluation.
The deaf person at this stage becomes stabilized and direction toward
realistic, obtainable goals is initiated.
With this approach, the client becomes a co-manager in his case. He has
an emotional investment in his future because he has helped to decide what
his future will be.
I imagine you are beginning to wonder if I am ever going to get to the
topic of evaluation and diagnosis. The client and the counselor have already
done evaluation to a degree, but before I go any further, I would like to
quote from an article written by Roger Falberg. The article is entitled "The
Psychological Evaluation of Prelingually Deaf Adults", and the quote is:
"No psychological evaluation should ever be undertaken solely for
the purpose of obtaining a score. The purpose of any evaluation is
to obtain a better understanding of the client as a person."
To broaden it somewhat, evaluation must be undertaken with a set purpose
in mind. Definite questions must be asked of the evaluator, whether they
pertain to vocational, psychological, medical or social evaluation. The client
must have input into the formulation of the questions being asked, and he
must definitely be involved in the interpretation of the results. Too many
times in the past, deaf people from early childhood to old age have been
unnecessarily prodded, poked, looked into, around, under and above and for
reasons unknown to them, due to the unrealistic evaluation techniques
employed. It is time we stopped this stereotyped attitude and start looking
at the individual.
When the evaluator receives a letter containing all the necessary
background information from the counselor, he is given specific questions to
answer. These questions are those the counselor and the client are unable to
answer. The evaluator does not need to spend time seeking answers to
questions that are already known. The evaluation can thus become more
precise and everyone benefits.
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JADARA, Vol. 6, No. 2 [1972], Art. 29
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TRAINING IN DIAGNOSTICS AND EVALUATION FOR THE SPECIALIST
The client is aware of why he is being evaluated and understands the
purpose. He may be poked and prodded, but at least he knows why. Scores
are obtained for a reason, and data are collected with an overall goal in mind.
The counselor's responsibility does not end here. He must be sure that
those who do the evaluation have an understanding of deaf people. He must
insure that effective communication persists into evaluation even to the
point of seeing that an interpreter is provided. After all, what good is an
evaluation if the client and the evaluator do not understand each other.
The counselor must be involved in selecting appropriate diagnostic tools
and he must create an awareness of their strengths and weaknesses as they
relate to the measurement of deaf people.
With the appropriate type of evaluation, the diagnosis can be made with
a much greater degree of accuracy and with much more confidence. By far,
however, the most important thing to remember is the fact that the client
must share in the process and rightly so because he must live with the
consequences.
In concluding, I would like to plagiarize from a student of mine. He
ended a term paper with these remarks: "Diagnosis for what? For
application and treatment — that's what."
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Nickoloff: Training in Diagnostics and Evaluation for the Specialist in Deaf
Published by WestCollections: digitalcommons@wcsu, 1972


Training in Diagnostics and Evaluation for the Specialist in Deafness Rehabilitation

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