The Perceived Effects/Impacts of Auditory Deficiency on the Social and Academic Behavior of Students in Hail, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Studies of teachers’ perceptions of students that are deaf and hard of hearing (SDHH) academic status compared with peers in high school mainstream and private classrooms are few, thus little is known of how SDHH fare in these classrooms. Current data on academic progress, especially prospective cross sectional data, are scant especially for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia .Most of the studies that have been written for hearing loss have been based on younger children in the kingdom. The studies on students who are between the ages of 15-18 and who are female are insufficient. We chose to look at both standardized surveys of both students' perceptions and teachers’ perceptions to provide a multidimensional picture of the academic status of the SDHH in this study. In the following sections we: (a) Describe a framework for measuring academic status for students in Saudi Arabia; (b) Review the academic status of SDHH student; (c) Review the factors contributing to SDHH academic status. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out on a hundred boys and girls of ages 15-18 with varying degrees of sensorineural deafness. This was carried out by interviews of the students and teachers, to answer our objectives. Results and Discussion: We were able to get a lot of gender specific information comparing female and male responses in Hail. In comparison with boys, girls on average felt they were treated significantly more differently by their parents (24 versus 10). Both girls and boys significantly on average felt that their academic performance was affected by their hearing loss (26 versus 25). Conclusion: This data has aided our understanding of the role of deafness and how it can impact academic performance in Hail. Integrated education in the future is something that would help the students with their communication and learning. Academic performance in Hail appears to be affected by interplay of a number of factors, pinpointing an exact factor would be of interest to future studies.