Children with hearing impairment

Background: Auditory rehabilitation is one of the important tasks of speech-language pathologists. So, it is necessary to know auditory behaviors in order to make some decisions about the children with hearing loss such as determining the effectiveness of the current rehabilitation programs and/or devices. The Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life (ABEL) questionnaire is a valid and reliable assessment tool in English which is developed by Purdy et al. (1995). The aim of this study was to translate and adapt ABEL questionnaire for Persian language. Methods: The ABEL consists of three factors of auditory-oral, auditory awareness, and conversational/social skills. First, the questionnaire was translated and culturally adapted from English to Persian by an independent Iranian translator. The back translated version was compared with the original one in terms of the semantic/idiomatic equivalence. Then the questionnaire was completed two times by 43 mothers of 4-to-6 year old children with hearing loss who were using either hearing aids or cochlear implants. Finally, the results of the test-retest reliability were statistically compared in order to assess internal consistency. The statistical tests which were used include Cronbach's Alpha, Spearman correlation, and Pearson correlation tests in significance level of 0.05. Results: There was a significant strength correlation among the items of the factor 1 (Alpha=0.94), factor 2 (Alpha=0.86), factor 3 (Alpha=0.82) and three factors (Alpha=0.96). There was a significant strength correlation at the 0.01 level between the scores of each factor in test-retest include auditory-oral (Spearman's rho=0.94, P<0.001), auditory awareness (Spearman's rho=0.92, P<0.001), and conversational/social skills (Spearman's rho=0.82, P<0.001). Conclusion: The Persian version of ABEL questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of auditory performance development in Persian-speaking children wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants. So, the ABEL questionnaire can be applied by parents/caregivers, clinicians, and researchers in order to appraise children's auditory behaviors in everyday living.

This work focuses on the provision of library resources and services to hearing impaired students in special school libraries in South-South, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consistedof 60 hearing impaired students drawn from twelve public and private special schools in South-South, Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 5 respondents from each of the schools. The instrument for data collection is a structured questionnaire. Out of 60 copies of questionnaire administered, 56 were found valid for analysis. The data was analyzed using percentage and mean scores. The study revealed that there was a shortage of information resources in alternative formats and services, and a lack of skilled and qualified teacher librarians to provide suitable library services to support the hearing impaired students amongst others. The study therefore recommended that library resources and services for hearing impaired learners should be acquired, made available and accessible for use: library schools should include special education, especially sign language in the curriculum so as to ensure that libraries and librarians are skilled to meet the needs of special learners. Also special school management should take proactive steps to improve their libraries so that they can be more supportive of the needs of hearing impaired students.

Background: Consistency of hearing aid and remote microphone system use declines as school-age children with hearing loss age. One indicator of hearing aid use time is data logging, another is parent report. Recent data suggest that parents overestimate their children's hearing aid use time relative to data logging. The potential reasons for this disparity remain unclear. Because school-age children spend the majority of their day away from their parents and with their teachers, reports from teachers might serve as a valuable and additional tool for estimating hearing aid use time and management.

Деца рођена са факторима ризика од раног узраста захтевају редовно систематско праћење тима стручњака за развојне поремећаје. Циљ рада представља идентификација деце која имају различит степен менталне ометености и која су обухваћена здравственом заштитом, као и утврђивање броја деце која похађају редовну школу у периоду пре (2008. година) и после (2012. година) законског увођења инклузивног образовања. Како би се стекао  увид у број деце која имају менталне сметње, облик и степен ометености, спроведене интервенције и резултате хабилитације и рехабилитације код деце која су обухваћена примарном здравственом заштитом, коришћен је Хелиант информациони здравствени систем. Резултати истраживања показују да је 2008. године примарном здравственом заштитом обухваћено 62,96% лако ментално ометене деце која похађају редовну школу,
17,28% умерено ментално ометене деце која су у специјалној школи,  4,94% теже и 14,81% тешко ментално ометене деце од којих је двоје деце, која имају вишеструке сметње, збринуто у установу за трајни смештај. Подаци који су добијени четири године касније
показују да постоји приближан број лако ментално ометене деце која су обухваћена здравственом заштитом (62,96%), као и подједнак број ове деце која похађају редовну школу (62,11%). У складу са захтевима инклузивног образовања потребно је подстаћи интензивније укључивање деце која имају различит степен менталне омeтености у редовну школу.



Children born with risk factors require from an early age regular and systematic monitoring by a team of experts in developmental disorders. The aim of this paper is to identify children with different degrees of intellectual disabilities that are included in the health care system, as well as to determine the number of children who attend regular schools in the period before 2008 and after 2012 legal implementation of inclusive schooling system. Heliant Health information system was used to give an insight into the number of children with intellectual disabilities, the form and the degree of the disability, as well as the interventions applied and the results of habilitation and rehabilitation of children included in the primary health care system. The results indicate that in 2008 62.96% of mildly intellectually disabled children attended regular schools, 17.28% of moderately intellectually disabled children attended special schools, 4.94% of severely intellectually disabled and 14.81% of profoundly intellectually disabled children, two of which with multiple disorders, were taken care of in the permanent residence institution. The data four years later show that the number of children included in the health care system is almost the same (62.96%), as well as the number of children who attend regular schools (62.11%). Inclusive education postulates for children with different degrees of intellectual disabilities to be more included in regular schools, which remains to be done in the future.

Keywords: intellectual disabilities, early intervention, IEP, inclusion.

In this study, the aim is to develop a measurement tool that can be used to measure attitudes towards Turkish Sign Language (TSL). For this purpose, the researchers followed a systematic process. The study group consists of students in the special education departments of three different universities' faculties of education in the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. The developed scale was applied to 510 students in total. The scale data obtained from the students were randomly divided into two; Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed with the first group data (n1=297), and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed with the second group data (n2=213). Within the scope of the results obtained from EFA, it was determined that the scale consists of four factors (effort, necessity, avoidance, active use) and 20 items. When the obtained construct validity was tested with CFA, it was seen that the values of fit indexes were at an acceptable level. The internal consistency of the scale was calculated with Cronbach's Alfa and the result obtained from this data set was determined as .91. The reliability coefficients of the factors ranged from .70 to .90. Findings showed that the scale is valid and reliable to measure attitudes towards TSL.

This study focused on disablers experienced by learners with Hearing Impairments (LwHI) when accessing health services in Zambia. A qualitative methodology driven by Hermeneutics Phenomenology research design was applied. In addition, a purposive sampling technique was used to enlist Ten LwHI to participate in this study. Participants volunteered to voice their lived experiences and clusters of themes emerged thereafter. Emergent themes from the lived experiences of LwHI included: poor health services and academic performance of LwHI that represent their felt worlds while at Musakanya school. The findings of the study revealed that most of the LwHI health services were unmet due to inaccessibility to better health services caused by poor communication, wrong diagnosis, lack of privacy and confidentiality, discrimination, inadequate medical vocabulary for signs, poor health education, Limited Institutional support staff and Negative attitude. The study also unearthed that LwHI experienced poor health services which resulted in poor academic performance due to absenteeism and prolonged admission at hospitals. Based on the findings of the current study, the researchers provide five (5) recommendations among which include: inclusive policy, communication, mandatory training of sign language to health workers, teachers to offer remedial works and improve on health education.

Özet Küçük çocukların eğitiminde resimli çocuk kitapları sıklıkla kullanılmaktadır. Resimli çocuk kitapları farklılıklar ve yetersizlikler gibi karmaşık konuların aktarılması için en etkili araçlardan biridir. Yapılan araştırmalar, hem normal gelişim gösteren hem işitme yetersizliğine sahip çocukların gelişiminde özellikle erken okuryazarlığın desteklenmesinde, resimli çocuk kitaplarının önemini ortaya koymuştur. Bu çalışmanın amacı, işitme yetersizliği olan 0-6 yaş çocuklarına yönelik resimli çocuk kitaplarının kullanıldığı araştırmaların incelenmesidir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda işitme yetersizliği olan 0-6 yaş çocuklarını konu alan, 2001-2019 yıllarında yayımlanmış, Web of Science, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) ve Scopus veri tabanlarında taranan 30 araştırma makalesi incelenmiştir. İncelenen çalışmalar amaçlarına göre; normal işiten ve işitme yetersizliği olan çocukların karşılaştırılması, uygulanan müdahale programının etkisinin incelenmesi, mevcut durumun betimlenmesi ve strateji belirleme olmak üzere dört kategoride ele alınmıştır. Ayrıca araştırmaların amaçları değerlendirilerek ilgili alandaki eksiklikler ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. Son olarak çalışmanın bulguları ışığında araştırmacılara önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Anahtar Kelimeler: Resimli çocuk kitapları, işitme yetersizliği, tarama 1Araşttırma Görevlisi, Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Sorumlu Yazar, [email protected] 2Doktora Öğrencisi, [email protected] 3 Doktora Öğrencisi, [email protected] 4Profesör Doktor, Hacettepe Üniversitesi, [email protected]

Objectives: The auditory behavior in everyday life (ABEL) questionnaire is a valid tool that was translated and adapted to Persian language by Oryadi-Zanjani et al. (2015). This study aimed at establishing the final Persian version of the ABEL questionnaire (ABEL-P). Methods: This study was a cross-sectional, observational study, conducted during a 12-month period. The questionnaires were completed by 113 mothers of 1-to 6-year-old children with hearing loss using hearing aids or cochlear implants. The subjects were recruited from children studying in a rehabilitation Centre for Persian children with hearing loss in Shiraz, Iran. This study had 4 main aims, including (a) specifying internal consistency of the questionnaire in a larger sample size, (b) comparing the 26-item ABEL-P and the 24-item ABEL-P, (c) factor analysis to examine the factor structure of the ABEL-P, and (d) assessing the capability of the tool in order to determine the auditory development of children with HL during a 12-month period. Results: Both the 24-item (α = 0.95) and the 26-item (α = 0.96) ABEL-P had high reliability. There was a good correlation between the items in all the 3 factors. According to the results of factor analysis, all items of the ABEL-P questionnaire had relatively high loadings (0.60 to 0.83) on a single factor. There was a significant difference among the means of the subject's ABEL scores within a 12-month period (P value < 0.001). Conclusions: The 23-item ABEL-P questionnaire is a valid and reliable assessment tool that could be used to measure the auditory development in Persian-language children.

Purpose: This pilot study examined factors influencing classroom hearing aid use in school-age children with hearing loss.
Method: The research team visited classrooms of 38 children with mild-to-moderate hearing loss (Grades 1–7) on 2 typical school days, twice per day, to document hearing aid use. In addition, parents reported the number of hours their children used hearing aids at school.
Results: Nearly 24% of children were observed not wearing their hearing aids in the classroom on either observation day. Both grade level and degree of hearing loss appeared to affect hearing aid use. Children in Grades 5–7 and those with milder hearing losses were less likely to wear hearing aids. Overall, parents accurately reported classroom hearing aid use; however, those with children in Grades 5–7 were less accurate than those with children in earlier grades.
Conclusions: These preliminary results suggest that children with milder hearing loss and those in Grades 5–7 are at increased risk for reduced hearing aid use in the classroom. Also, parents of school-age children in these later grades are less accurate reporters of classroom hearing aid use compared to parents of children in earlier grades.

n this study, the authors report the results of a three-stage newborn hearing screening (NHS) program for well babies at the Gazi University Hospital (GUH) in Ankara between 2003 and 2013. GUH-NHS was performed by automated transient evoked otoacoustic emission (a-TEOAE) at the first and second steps and by automated brainstem audiometry (a-ABR) at the third step. The data were analysed to assess not only rate of congenital permanent hearing loss (CPHL), but also the effectiveness of the program during the years. A total of 18,470 well babies were tested. The data showed that coverage ratio for the GUH-born babies was increased and more outside-born babies (OBB) were admitted by time (means 84.31 and 11.28 %, respectively). Mean CPHL was found to be 0.26 %. Mean referral rate was decreased to 0.81 % by a-ABR from 2.16 % by a-TEOAE. Mean of missed cases in any stage of GUH-NHS was 4.88 %. It was seen that neither CPHL nor referral rate, but only ratio of missed ones presented increase in parallel to increment in OBB. This paper first presents that clinically acceptable screening procedures developed in GUH by time, and secondly higher rate of CPHL in Turkey than in the Western countries, and benefits of third stage screening by a-ABR because it prevented referral of 251 children (1.29 %) to the clinical tests. We think that this number is reasonably important regarding not only economical point of view, but also waiting lists in the audiology departments in a developing country, in which audiological service is still limited.