Oral-Language Skills of the Iranian Pupils With Hearing-Impairment

Spoken and written language skills of prelingually deaf pupils should be evaluated to improve the existing language curricula. The current study aimed to determine the oral language development of the students with hearing impairment studying in Shiraz special primary schools. The current research was administered as a cross-sectional study. The sample size was 29 Farsi language students of exceptional primary schools with hearing impairment in Shiraz, Iran. A speech-language pathologist (SLP) evaluated the subjects by Farsi version of the Test of Language Development-Primary 3 (TOLD-P: 3) individually. A number of TOLD-P: 3 subtests were administered in the subjects including: semantics, grammar, listening, organizing, speaking, and overall language ability. To determine the oral language ability of the subjects compared to the norms, the subjects’ score in each dimension was statistically compared with the nearest category in the scale. The data were registered in IBM SPSS 21, and analyzed by means of one-sample T-test at 0.05 significance level. There was a significant difference between the subject’s scores in all sub-tests and the category of moderate in TOLD-P: 3 (P < 0.001). Based on the current study, the students with hearing impairment enrolled in special schools had difficulties to learn optimal oral language skills compared to their normal peers.

Spoken and written language skills of prelingually deaf pupils should be evaluated to improve the existing language curricula. The current study aimed to determine the oral language development of the students with hearing impairment studying in Shiraz special primary schools. The current research was administered as a cross-sectional study. The sample size was 29 Farsi language students of exceptional primary schools with hearing impairment in Shiraz, Iran. A speech-language pathologist (SLP) evaluated the subjects by Farsi version of the Test of Language Development-Primary 3 (TOLD-P: 3) individually. A number of TOLD-P: 3 subtests were administered in the subjects including: semantics, grammar, listening, organizing, speaking, and overall language ability. To determine the oral language ability of the subjects compared to the norms, the subjects’ score in each dimension was statistically compared with the nearest category in the scale. The data were registered in IBM SPSS 21, and analyzed by means of one-sample T-test at 0.05 significance level. There was a significant difference between the subject’s scores in all sub-tests and the category of moderate in TOLD-P: 3 (P < 0.001). Based on the current study, the students with hearing impairment enrolled in special schools had difficulties to learn optimal oral language skills compared to their normal peers.