Speech and Psychic Structure: A Reconsideration of their Relation

Five girls with severe congenital hearing loss secondary to prenatal rubella infection were observed at regular intervals between ages two and a half and five. They were selected from a much larger group of congenitally deaf youngsters because of the similarities in their cultural, economic, and medical backgrounds. We believe that observed differences among our subjects in character and behavior can be ascribed either to heredity or to differences in their specific family environments. Shared characteristics which distinguish them from girls of normal hearing of the same age can, on the other hand, be ascribed to their hearing loss.

In areas other than the use of language, comprehensive developmental tests have shown our subjects' performances to be on a par with those of their age mates with normal hearing. Within the group of subjects, differences in personality and behavior have been highly congruent with and, in our opinion, attributable to what we have considered to be distinctive in their individual family structures, particularly in regard to their relationship with their mothers. In general, the children's modes of handling aggression were extremely variable, and again were clearly related to