Classification of Hearing Impaired Children in the Classroom

Abstract

Hearing impairments are assumed to present difficulties for academic learning in the normal manner. However, the assessment of psycholinguistic skills seems to indicate that hearing impaired children achieve similar academic performance levels by individualistic modes. Since these children show a variety of methods of compensating for hearing impairment, factors other than the input channel deficit must be evaluated before any definitive statement can be made about the child's ability to function in the classroom. A classification model with four prototypes is proposed for the hearing impaired child in the classroom. The tentative classification is based upon a test battery which places greater reliance on assessing skills basic to academic success rather than on the extent of the hearing loss. The evaluation profile specifies the remedial program.