Socio-emotional difficulties are at least three times more common among children who are deaf or hard of hearing compared to those without hearing problems, a new study has shown.

According to the findings, 42% of deaf or hard of hearing children have clinically significant socio-emotional problems, which impact on home life, school and their ability to get on with others.

However of these, just 14% are currently receiving mental health or counselling supports.

The results of the study were published in a report commissioned by Chime, the national charity for deafness and hearing loss.

“Peer problems have been shown to increase the risk of self-harm over a lifetime, so the report findings in this area are very concerning. There are no specialised supports for deaf and hard of hearing children in the socio-emotional area and a lack of specialist competency in Ireland,” explained Chime CEO, Mark Byrne.

The charity warned that an approach, which has involved urgent cases requiring specialist attention being seen by a psychiatrist in the UK at parents’ expense, is unsustainable.

Mr Byrne insisted that deafness “in and of itself is not the cause of these (socio-emotional) difficulties”.

“Rather, a host of factors, often outside their control, leave deaf and hard of hearing children more vulnerable to socio-emotional difficulties. These include delayed diagnosis and appropriate intervention, lack of access to sign language and stigma towards deafness and the stresses associated with that,” he said.

As a result, mainstream services “struggle to assess and meet the needs” of deaf and hard of hearing children with socio-emotional difficulties.

According to the report’s author, Dr Elizabeth Mathews of DCU, in countries such as Sweden, where there is specialist early intervention, scores for socio-emotional difficulties among deaf and hard of hearing children were similar, if not lower, than the typically hearing population.

The research included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) that is used internationally, as well as a large sample of the Irish child population in the Growing Up In Ireland study.

Data was collected on children aged between four and 17. A total of 113 valid questionnaires were included in the analysis. The full report can be viewed here.