Social Competence, Sense of Loneliness, and Speech Intelligibility of Young Children With Hearing Loss in Individual Inclusion and Group Inclusion

Abstract

The study focused on social competence (SC) and perceived sense of loneliness of preschool children with hearing loss (HL) in group inclusion (GI, a small group of children with HL is integrated in a standard classroom) and individual inclusion (II, each child with HL is individually integrated into a standard classroom). The relations between these factors and the child's speech intelligibility were performed. Sixty-four children aged 4-7 years participated: 22 from an II and 42 from a GI. SC, perceived sense of loneliness, and speech intelligibility were evaluated through the use of questionnaires completed by the preschool teachers. The results showed that the SC of children in II was higher than the SC of the children in GI, while interacting with normal hearing (NH) children. In GI, the children's SC with other children with HL was higher compared with their SC with NH children. In both groups, there were relationships between speech intelligibility and SC with NH children. In addition, in the II setting, there were relationships between the speech intelligibility and the perceived sense of loneliness. These relationships were not found in the GI setting. The findings support the need for coenrollment of preschool children with HL and emphasize the crucial impact of speech intelligibility of children with HL on the success of their social enrollment with NH children, already at a young age.

Self-Esteem in Hearing-Impaired Children: The Influence of Communication, Education, and Audiological Characteristics

“…The communication barrier between HI and NH children can function as an obstacle for successful interpersonal relationships and may hamper these children in developing solid social networks [51], [52]. This process may pave the way for social isolation and loneliness, with consequences for the child's self-esteem [53], [54]. Hence, by improving language development and communication skills, the HI child might experience better contact with peers, which in turn would likely improve their self-esteem in this domain.…”

Social Maturity and Executive Function Among Deaf Learners

“…It is notable that social maturity was measured via self-report in this study, however, and Antia, Jones, Luckner, Kreimeyer, and Reed (2011) found that deaf children appeared overly confident in self-reports of social competence relative to parent and teacher ratings. Furthermore, deaf individuals with poor social competence, or simply poor communication skills, may be less aware of subtleties in social interactions and the extent of their delays (Most, Ingber, & Heled-Ariam, 2012;Punch & Hyde, 2011).…”

Deaf children, humor and education policy

“…Mainstreamed deaf children have much more limited interactions with their hearing peers than the hearing children do with each other (KEATING;MIRUS, 2000). Indeed, studies reveal the loneliness that deaf children feel (NUNES;PRETZLIK;OLSSON, 2001;ELHAGEEN, 2004;MOST, 2007;MOST;INGBER;HELED-ARIAM, 2011). When deaf adults look back on their childhood, they remember suffering from loneliness (LEVINGER;ORLEV, 2008), and Kurz, Hauser, and Listman (2016, p. 88) Activities that cause spontaneous laughter are exactly what the deaf child needs in order to feel truly included in school and to make friends.…”

“…If she is so inclined, she can avail herself of the richness that YouTube offers in the way of presenting Deaf Culture, encouraging students to mimic stories, such as those of the Teatro Alegria Surda (PINHEIRO, 2011) and RISE (MIRUS; NAPOLI, 2018). Silveira and colleagues(2011) suggest that she bring to the inclusive classroom stories in Deaf Culture that focus on joy, love, and optimism, with illustrations of smiling characters. Such stories help develop deaf identity(SUTTON-SPENCE, 2010) and can help all children who are dealing with dilemmas, uncertainty, and ambiguity, as some deaf children are (for a retrospective from deaf adults' point of view, seeKUSHALNAGAR et al, 2017).…”