Deafness often leads to unnecessary communication deficits which produce developmental deviations in the psychological development of children. These deviations mesh with environmental frustrations and with a continuing lack of reciprocity in human relationships to produce psychopathological symptoms. The primary intervention in work with deaf children is educational; the children and parents must be provided with multimodal communication (visual, aural, and tactile) in order to foster normal psychological development. Mental health professionals can contribute to this process as they work with parental reactions to the diagnosis of deafness (anger, guilt, mourning) which frequently interfere with the development of normal parent-child relationships. (Author)