Social-Emotional Perceptions of Deaf Students in Hail, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

<b> </b><b>Background</b><b>: </b>To date, studies of deaf student's perceptions using a multidimensional self-report instrument to measure their overall social-emotional adjustment in private educational establishments in the western world are few, especially between the ages of 15-21. In terms of Saudi Arabia studies both cross-sectional and longitudinal are few on the social-emotional function of deaf students. We chose to look at standardized surveys of students' perceptions to provide a multidimensional picture of the social- emotive function of the students who are deaf or hard of hearing (SDHH) in a university and high school in Saudi Arabia. In the following sections we (a) Describe a framework for measuring social emotive perceptions for students in Saudi Arabia. (b) Review the social emotive status of students that are deaf or hard of hearing (SDHH) by their perceptions. (c) Review the factors contributing to SDHH social-emotive status.<b> </b><b>Methods</b><b>: </b>A cross sectional study was carried out on seventy female students of ages 15-18 and 18-21 with varying degrees of sensor neural deafness. This was carried out by interviews of the students to answer our objectives. <b>Results and Discussion</b><b>: </b>A high significant number of students surveyed in our study were happy with themselves and satisfied with their situation in the private setting both in the university and the high school. The majority of female SDHH in this study, however, perceived barriers when communicating and got embarrassed when speaking with people that did not understand them. <b>Conclusion</b><b>: </b><i>This study has aided our understanding of the social-emotive factors perceived by SDHH in the private setting. </i>The SDHH in this study had positive attitudes towards achieving their goals, making friends and their well being and this could be encouraged in the future by teachers and parents. A number of SDHH in this study did not know of the government support available to them. More workshops to educate the students on the government services available and how to receive them would aid in this.