Disordered Communication and Grieving in Deaf Member Families

When a deaf child is born to hearing parents, a grieving process is initiated in the parents. Unresolved grieving over their child's deafness often makes it difficult for hearing parents to accept the importance of signing, thus increasing the child's problems — further source of grief for these parents. Clinical illustrations are provided of (1) the reciprocal relationship between disruption of the mourning process and disturbance of communication between family members, and (2) the transmission of the dysfunctional relationship between hearing parents and deaf children to the subsequent relationship between the deaf children, when they reach adulthood, and their hearing children.     

A Comparison of Two Approaches to Counselor-Free Career Exploration

This study was conducted to advance previous research in the use of computer-based, counselor-free career guidance systems instead of conventional counselor-free systems. The participants, Undergraduate college students (20 men and 20 women), were asked to rate their reactions to using the DISCOVER II microcomputer career guidance system and the Self-Directed Search. The majority of the participants preferred the DISCOVER II as a vocational exploration program.     

A radical change in counselor education and certification

The new Washington state certification plan for school counselors includes promising innovations. The plan calls for behaviorally stated performance standards related to client outcomes. Resulting programs for in-service as well as pre-service counselors are developed in a partnership among professional associations, school districts, and university counselor education personnel. Professional identity and involvement are encouraged through counselor self-assessment against specific performance criteria, individualized training and self-renewal programs, and lifelong professional development plans. A new role is developed of a counselor staff development specialist who functions as a school training consultant and counselor educator.