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The research we offer to carry out is concerned with the topic of early special education interventions aimed at the development and improvement of social skills for children who suffer from hearing impairments (HI). In particular, we would like to find out the effects of such interventions on young children who study in elementary schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Before speaking further about the topic, it is important to define the key notions that are used in this paper. The term “early childhood” usually refers to the age of from 1 to approximately 8 years (Guest, 2013; Ansari, 2014); thus, it may include both preschoolers and children who have only started school. “Hearing impairment” is a term which denotes bad hearing that can vary in degree from total deafness, when “hearing is disabled to an extent that precludes the understanding of speech through the ear alone, with or without the use of a hearing aid”, to being hard of hearing, when “hearing is disabled to an extent that makes difficult, but does not preclude, the understanding of speech through ear alone, with or without a hearing aid”, to mild difficulties in hearing (Akram and Hameed, 2014, p. 104). “Special education” is the type of education that is created for children with special needs (resulting from e.g. hearing impairments) and is aimed at satisfying these needs (e.g. helping them to realize their full potential despite these impairments). “Social skills” are skills that are important for a person’s successful interaction with the society they live in (such as communication skills, social adaptation skills, etc.) (Xie, 2013).
The topic of special education interventions is of crucial importance due to the fact that children with HI commonly have additional trouble developing their social skills, perhaps due to the lack of early exposure to the part of social environment that consists of auditory communication. Such children require much special attention; otherwise, it is highly probable that they will fail to learn the necessary amount of social skills, will suffer from low self-esteem (Vernosfaderani, 2014) and other psychological problems, and will be unable to become full-fledged members of their society. This is likely to result in an even lower quality of life for people who often face additional trouble due to their condition even without the numerous social issues that can emerge in their lives.
Moeller, Carr, Seaver, Stredler-Brown, and Holzinger (2013) point out the fact that the implementation of various principles of dealing with children who suffer from HI varies from country to country. It appears completely justified to conclude that in some countries (and, further, regions, cities, schools, etc.) special education interventions are carried out at a suboptimal level. Therefore, it is paramount to study the results of such interventions both generally (in order to improve the methodology of such interventions) and in particular regions (which would help to better these interventions in concrete territorial divisions). Thus, the purpose of our research is to find out the effects of these interventions in the given particular setting (elementary schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) in order to possibly improve both the general methodology of these interventions and their implementation in the mentioned region.
Literature Review
The research of special education interventions and the findings made in this field allow teachers, educators, and therapists to more effectively help children with HI to successfully develop their social skills and become full-fledged members of their community. It is also stressed that the effectiveness of interventions is likely to be much higher when these interventions start at the very early age (1-2 years of age) (Ansari, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to thoroughly analyze the effects and the effectiveness of such interventions to be able to improve them in order to help auditory impaired children better in the future.
This section reviews a number of articles that deal with the issue of hearing impairment in children. Most articles assess the social skills of such children and the effectiveness of special education interventions in improving these skills. Ansari (2014) identifies the age at which parents take steps to deal with the impairments of their babies, whereas Moeller et al. (2013) offer some recommendations concerning the interventions.
Guest (2013) found out that children with HI performed worse at conversational repair that their non-impaired peers. The researcher analyzed the conversational repair that children at the age of 24-83 months performed during interactions with others. One group consisted of three children with mild to profound HI, the other comprised three kids with no hearing loss. The scholar recorded a full day of speech for each child by using LENA (Language Environment Analysis digital processor) and analyzed the results with ADEX (the LENA Advanced Data Extractor). Because conversational repair was harder for children with HI, it is concluded that therapists of such children should concentrate on conversational repair issues rather than plainly cause conversation initiations and responses.
Akram and Hameed (2014) found out that adaptive emotional skills of adolescent children with HI were worse than those of children with no hearing problems. The population included Pakistani adolescents with hearing impairments from 23 special schools; they were compared to children with no HI selected from regular schools. The ability of participants to recognize emotions from facial expressions, use emotions to communicate feelings, understand groups of related emotions, and manage emotions and use them in decision-making were measured. The research found that adolescents with HI scored much lower than children with no such impairments, but socio-demographic variables (speech services, time of intervention, language, presence of hearing impaired relatives, etc.) significantly affected the impaired children’s scores.
Xie (2013) conducted a meta-research that revised the literature on how children with HI interact with their peers in inclusive schools, and found out that kids with HI initiate interactions with peers and moderate them, but the success of such interactions is related to the hearing status of the peer that the child communicates with; children with HI interact more successfully with other kids who suffer from HI than with those who have typical hearing. A number of intervention programs are offered; these include programs for bettering language and speech abilities, social skills training, co-enrollment programs, and peer-mediated model programs. However, the author notes that further research is needed to determine the exact effects of such programs.
Ansari (2014) found out at which age parents identified HI in their babies and took steps to intervene. The sample consisted of parents (living mainly in or near Mumbai, India) of infants with severe to profound HI; the participants filled in a specially designed questionnaire. It was discovered that the average age of suspicion, diagnosing, fitting of amplification, and the beginning of early intervention were 16.5, 24.3, 31.7, and 33.4 months, respectively. It is stressed that early intervention is crucial in the future development of children with HI.
Vernosfaderani (2014) was able to record positive changes in the self-esteem of students with HI after providing them with special training. Learners with HI from inclusive schools (54 students, 8-16 years old; 27 students participated in the training activities, the other 27 comprised the control group) were provided with life-skills training that concentrated on the development of skills such as communication, decision-making, self-awareness, thinking, daily living skills, relationship skills, social skills, etc. The students’ self-esteem was measured with Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (58-items variant) before and after the study, and analyzed via the SPSS package. The students who participated in the training showed a significant improvement in their self-esteem. It is concluded that such training should be effective in increasing the self-esteem of learners with HI from inclusive schools.
Naeini, Arshadi, Hatamizadeh, and Bakhshi (2013) recorded positive changes in female students with HI after special interventions. The quasi-experimental study scrutinized the results of twelve 1-hour bi-weekly sessions of interventions aimed at the development of three important social skills, namely, a) making friends, b) understanding and respecting oneself, c) recognizing one’s own emotions and dealing with the adverse ones. The population consisted of 66 female students aged 11 to 21 years, mostly with profound HI; 33 were allocated to the intervention group and 33 – to the control group. The study found that the interventions led to profound improvements in general perceived competence scores of the sample, as well as in their socio-emotional, communication competencies, and school adjustment.
Moeller et al. (2013) in their article report the results of an international panel of experts which took place in June 2012 in Austria and summarize the principles accepted there. The panel addressed the issue of implementation of family-centered interventions for children with HI. As the utilization of interventions was often suboptimal in experts’ nations, ten basic principles were formulated to stimulate the implementation of proper interventions. The first principle promotes timely and adequate access to intervention services; principles 2 to 6 concentrate on what the specialists need to work on and how they need to do it while applying interventions; principles 7-8 set the qualification requirements for the specialists and elaborate the need for teamwork in such issues; finally, principles 9-10 deal with the need for evaluation-driven practices.
As it can be seen, special education interventions generally lead to better social skills in children with HI. However, interventions implemented in various nations are not always optimal and often could be improved.
Rationale and Research Question
The literature review shows that the implementation of special education interventions is beneficial for children who suffer from an auditory deficit; clearly, practicing it permits to improve their quality of life. Furthermore, it is often stated that interventions in the early age are of crucial importance (Akram & Hameed, 2014; Ansari, 2014).
On the other hand, the implementation of these interventions varies in different regions, and the differences in these variations are not always known. The use of interventions conducted in the reviewed studies mostly yielded positive results, which means that currently the school education is provided at a suboptimal level. Besides, the effects of particular interventions are not always thoroughly studied.
Thus, it is important to examine the impact of special education interventions which are implemented in specific regions, even schools, in order to both observe their results and be able to improve them on the local level. As very few studies (and none of the reviewed articles) are dedicated to special education interventions in Saudi Arabia, it is essential to analyze the results of such interventions as they are implemented in this particular region. Therefore, the research question of the proposed study will be formulated as follows: “Do early interventions affect social skills in elementary schools’ students who suffer from hearing loss in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia?”
References
Akram, B., & Hameed, A. (2014). Adaptive emotional abilities of adolescents with hearing impairment. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 29(1), 103-123.
Ansari, M. S. (2014). Assessing parental role as resource persons in achieving goals of early detection and intervention for children with hearing impairment. Disability, CBR and Inclusive Development, 25(4), 84-98. Web.
Guest, H. E. (2013). Pragmatics and social communication: Children with hearing loss in early childhood settings (Honors theses). Web.
Moeller, M. P., Carr, G., Seaver, L., Stredler-Brown, A., & Holzinger, D. (2013). Best practices in family-centered early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing: An international consensus statement.Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 18(4), 429-445. Web.
Naeini, T. S., Arshadi, F. K., Hatamizadeh, N., & Bakhshi, E. (2013). The effect of social skills training on perceived competence of female adolescents with deafness. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 15(12). Web.
Vernosfaderani, A. M. (2014). The effectiveness of life skills training on enhancing the self-esteem of hearing impaired students in inclusive schools.Open Journal of Medical Psychology, 3, 94-99. Web.
Xie, Y. (2013). Peer interaction of children with hearing impairment.International Journal of Psychological Studies, 5(4), 17-25. Web.
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