| The aim of this diagnostic case study is to validate the sand tray apparatus as an exceptional assessment instrument of ego maturity. The most central aim of this study is to provide evidence that the sand tray apparatus is especially well suited for assessing the ego development of deaf children that have not yet acquired a formal language. A third aim is to redirect attention to deaf children needing a valid and reliable assessment of emotional development. A comprehensive review of the substantial variety of qualitative and quantitative form and content analyses of sand tray "Worlds" is undertaken. The author consolidates these analyses resulting in a means by which a comprehensive understanding of the deaf child, his experience of himself and his world is comprehended. Assessing reality testing, reasoning and judgement, causal and means-end thinking, defense functioning, self-concept and self-integrative efforts, and object relations contribute to that understanding. To illustrate, these analyses are used to extrapolate meanings from the sand tray productions of an adopted 10 year-old, Central American born, congenitally deaf boy. |
