The integration experience of hearing impaired elementary school students in separated and integrated school settings.
Integration experiences of hearing impaired German elementary school students in separate educational settings (n = 31) were compared with those of counterparts at the same level in integrated settings (n = 26), and evaluated in regard to psychosocial behavior, semantic-lexical abilities, and communicative skills. Analysis of questionnaire responses and intelligence subtests showed that the only difference between the samples concerned perceived well-being in school, and favored the integrated students. Other percentages of variance are explainable by school type (10%), parents' hearing status (12%), and use of bimodal communication (11%). The integrated students demonstrated a higher level of integration experience, associated with fewer psychosocial abnormalities and better communicative skills. The results indicate that educational setting is not the only factor influencing students' perceived well-being. Other contextual factors, e.g., hearing status of parents and communicative skills, have a similar positive impact on integration experiences
Department of Otolaryngology, Freiburg University Hospital, Germany.
Alexandra
A
Vetter
Erwin
E
Löhle
Jürgen
J
Bengel
Thorsten
T
Burger
D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003142:Communication; D060345:Education of Persons with Hearing Disabilities; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007858:Learning; D008282:Mainstreaming, Education; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires