National Survey of School Counselors Working with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: Two Decades Later

The first national survey of school counselors for deaf children was conducted by Marie Curtis in 1975. She found that deaf students needed counseling services and that existing services were poor to fair in meeting these students' needs. The purpose of the present study was to follow up on Curtis's study by seeking current information on the demography of school counselors as well as the present roles and skills of counselors working with deaf children. Survey respondents indicated that they spent most of their time providing individual and group counseling. A large majority of respondents said their communication skills with students were adequate or better. The three most frequently identified student problems seen were "problems with peer relations," "difficulty with decision making," and "poor self-esteem." Comparisons between the present study and the Curtis study indicate that counselor competence has improved in the intervening years. Specifically, survey respondents in the present study gave themselves much higher ratings in the areas of communication skills, training, and counseling skills.