Teachers' report on Status of Communication with Hearing Impaired Children in Special Schools of Punjab: An Evaluation of Current Linguistic Competence of HIC

Abstract

Development of communication skills in children with hearing impairment (HIC) is one of the major goals of rehabilitation for these children. Information about current trends and communication status of HIC is a prerequisite for communication skill-building plan development. For the exploration of the current communication status of HIC studying in public special education institutes of Punjab, a survey was conducted. Two-stage cluster sampling was used to get data from teachers working in 30 randomly selected institutes. A self-developed questionnaire (Cronbach alpha, 0.8) was mailed to get data. SPSS was used for quantitative analysis of data obtained from 107 questionnaires containing information about 886 HIC studying in the special schools. Sign language was found as a common mode of communication. Those using an oral mode of communication were at the word level. The aural approach of teaching was getting acceptance from the teachers. Provision of hearing aid and improvement in speech therapy services were recommended.

Inclusive Education for Students with Hearing Impairmentin Pakistan: Communication & Socialization Challenges at Higher Education

“…As a result, all SWHI face communication challenges, directly or indirectly affecting their academic success adversely. Pakistani HEIsare still immature inhandling the problems of SWHI and do not really provide them with an enabling and inclusive learning environment (Arsh et al, 2019;Hameed & Ain, 2020;Hussain et al, 2020;Noor et al, 2020).…”

“…Scholars have noted that SWHI face countless problems in communication, socialization, curriculum adaptation and modification and above all, in sign language interpretation (Onuigbo et al, 2020;Possi & Milinga, 2018;Safder et al, 2012). In the Pakistani context, communication and socialization problems faced by SWHI in HEIs are higheras compared to the developed countries.This is because of the fact that only a few Pakistani HEIs in public and private sectors are at the initial stagesof accepting SWHI (Hussain et al, 2020;Noor et al, 2020).…”

“…They face communication problems in inclusive settings because there is a gap between personal comprehension and the ongoing classroom conversation (Hussain et al, 2020). Such problems seem more significant for SWHI who use a mixed communication model; however, the major obstacleidentified for them is classroom communication (Noor et al, 2020). They face communication difficulties even when an interpreter and additional support services are provided for them simultaneously in HEIs.…”