How to Rehabilitate Hearing Impaired Kids in Kaduna State, Nigeria. A Case Study of the City of Zaria

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DECLARATION PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMET

ABSTRACT-

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Research Hypotheses
1.6 Significance of the Study
1.7 Scope and Delimitation of the Study

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Concept Rehabilitation
2.2 Definition of Hearing Impairment?
2.3 Hearing Impairment
2.4 Causes of Hearing Impairment
2.5 Identification and Assessment of Persons with Hearing Impairment
2.6 Vocational Rehabilitation for the Hearing Impaired Children
2.7 Purpose of Vocational Rehabilitation of Persons with Hearing Impairment
2.8 The rehabilitation process for Exceptional persons
2.9 Classification of Rehabilitative Service and Beneficiaries
2.10 Basic Steps in Rehabilitation of Person with Hearing Impairment
2.11 Steps in process of rehabilitation of persons with Hearing Impairment
2.12 Outlets of Rehabilitation Services
2.13 Summary

CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Population of the Study
3.3 Sample and Sampling Techniques-
3.4 Instruments for Data Collection -
3.5 Reliability/Validity of Instrument-
3.6 Procedure for Data Collection
3.7 Method of Data Analysis

CHAPTER FOUR
INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA.
4.0 Introduction

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Summary and Findings
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Recommendations

REFERENCES

ABSTRACT

The study focused on A Survey of the Process of Rehabilitating Hearing Impaired Person in Kaduna State A case study of ZARIA L.G.A The sample for the study consisted of 50 students. Ten students were randomly selected from the senior secondary classes in the five selected secondary schools in the study area. The selection was done through random sampling techniques. The questionnaire entitle “students personality and their academic performance in agricultural science in secondary schools” was the main instrument for data collection. The result from the analyzed data indicated that student’s self- concept, motivation, attitude and anxiety are significantly related to academic performance in agricultural science. In the light of above findings, it was concluded that personality of students have influence on their academic performance in agricultural. It was recommended among others that students should be encouraged to develop positive self-concept, be self-motivated and develop positive attitudes toward the study of agricultural science if they intend to ensure a high academic performance in the subject.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

The ability to hear and turn sounds into meaning is an assumption of life to many living souls. It is an ability we often take for granted. The organ of hearing is one of marvelous gifts of God. The ear is very important because it is one fundamental way we learn about the thoughts, ideas and feelings of others by listening to them. Hearing impairment are full or partial decrease in the ability to detect or identify sounds. The term has been variously defined by several authorities, researchers and scholars of reputes in the field of medicine, audiology and education.

Audiologic (hearing) rehabilitation (also known as auditory or audiologic rehab) is the process of providing training and treatment to improve hearing for those who are hearing impaired. Hearing rehabilitation services focus on adjusting to hearing loss, making the best use of hearing aids, exploring assistive devices, managing conversations, and taking charge of communication. Services can be individualized, in small groups, or a combination of both.

Hearing loss produces a communication handicap which is not always predictable from audiometric results. Handicap questionnaires can be useful for identification of potential rehabilitation candidates. Hearing aids have been improved but cannot be expected to compensate for all the speech perception problems associated with sensorineural hearing loss. Other communication aids can be used to reduce hearing handicap. Effective use of devices often requires more instruction than is currently available. A comprehensive rehabilitation program takes into account individual circumstances and provides for a variety of services in addition to provision of aids.

Over the past four decades, there has been a long standing controversy concerning the question of whether oral communication (speech and lip reading) or manual communication (finger-spelling and sign language) is more influential in conveying the intended messages to children with hearing impairment. Wood (2014) notes that this controversy has lasted for four hundred years. The communication controversy has been between the oralists such as (Cohen, 2013 & Jacobs, 2013) and Manualists such as (Yego, 2016, Riekeholf, 2014 & Raji, 2003).

The oralists are of the opinion that oral communication helps children with hearing impairment to lip read and possibly speak words. They argued that persons with hearing impairment who are skilled in lip reading can understand about sixty to eighty percent of English words presented. But on the other hand, the Manualists argued that oral communication slows down a child's language development at the period when the children learn language fastest (age 1 to 7 years). The issue however, should not be whether oral or manual method would be used, but which of the method would help children with hearing impairment learn maximally in the classroom.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

It has been observed that children with hearing impairment record consistent poor performance in schools due to inadequate acquisition of language. It is suspected that the poor performance might be caused by a lot of factors, one of which could be ineffective communication strategies adopted by Nigerian educators for children with hearing impairment which seem not to take into cognizance the local gestures the children already had before the introduction of other sign systems. Most of these sign systems are not based on the children's own local gestures. Children with hearing impairment may find it difficult to interact with their peers using such sign systems.

It is suspected that the adoption of wrong sign language system may lead to ineffective development of language which also may lead to ineffective learning and understanding of school subjects. There seems to be no study that has investigated the relative effects of American Sign Language, Local sign language and total communication modes on the reading comprehension of children with hearing impairment in Kaduna State and in deed Nigeria.

Furthermore, the issue of gender has not been resolved since controversy exists over which gender (male or female) achieve better in reading comprehension. There seems to be scarcity of materials in these areas and no previous equivalent studies on the effect of the three sign language modes were carried out in Nigeria to provide empirical evidence to resolve the controversy in the reading comprehension in primary schools for the deaf in Kaduna State. These areas appear neglected. It is to this point however the researchers tends to identify to what extent rehabilitation will improved the performance of learners with hearing impairment in Kaduna State.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to survey the processes involved in rehabilitating the hearing impaired persons in Kaduna State

Specifically, the study sought to:

1. Determine the effect of the America sign language, local sign language and total communication modes on reading comprehension achievement of persons with hearing impairment in Kaduna State.
2. Explore the influence of rehabilitation counselling on reading comprehension achievement of persons with hearing impairment in Kaduna State.
3. Explore the various education and therapies to persons (individual or group) and their families about the use and expectations of wearing hearing aids to improve communication.
4. To determine in what way will rehabilitation have a positive effect towards alleviating deaf or hard of hearing children towards academic performance?

1.4 Research Questions

In order to guide the study, the following research questions were formulated;

1. To what extent do the mean achievement scores in reading comprehension of the pupils with hearing impairment depend on the use of American Sign Language (ASL), local sign language (LSL) and total communication (TC) modes?
2. To what extent does rehabilitation Counselling improves the learning achievement of pupils with hearing impairment in Kaduna State?.
3. To ascertain the impact of education and therapies to persons (individual or group) and their families about the use and expectations of wearing hearing aids to improve communication.
4. To what extend does rehabilitation counselling have positive effect towards alleviating deaf or hard of hearing children towards academic performance?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

H01: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores in reading comprehension of pupils with hearing impairment who were exposed to ASL, LSL and TC modes.

H02: Gender has no significant influence on persons with hearing impairment in reading comprehension after educational rehabilitation counselling.

H03: there is positive significant influence of rehabilitation counselling towards alleviating deaf or hard of hearing children towards academic performance.

1.6 Significance of the Study

Not many people understand the role sign language can play in the education of children with hearing impairment. Some teachers of children with hearing impairment have made some suggestions regarding the use of any sign system in teaching that can facilitate teaching and learning in schools. It is hoped that this study will be significant to teachers of the children with hearing impairment, curriculum developers, parents, institutions and authors as well as children with hearing impairment themselves.

It is hoped that when teachers of hearing impaired children are made to be aware of the findings of the study, through workshops and seminars, it would enable them to arrange the children with hearing impairment learning programmes and develop instructional plans that would prove effective in helping them to overcome their reading difficulties.

The findings from this study would also benefit the policy makers and curriculum developers during the development of curriculum. It is hoped that when the curriculum developers are informed of the findings of the study, they would develop the curriculum in such a way that basic sign language modes will be incorporated into language curriculum of children with hearing impairment.

The result of the findings could be useful to parents of children with hearing impairment. As the best communication strategy would have been discovered, it would help the parents of these children to interact with their children and also contribute to the education of their children. For instance, when these children are still at home, their parents interact and communicate with them a lot in local sign language, but the moment they start school and embrace ASL their parents no longer interact and communicate with the children any more. It may appear that since the parents no longer interact with their children contributing their own quota in the education of the children would be difficult.

The feedback from this study will also be of help to both parents and their children. They will be equipped with a communication system to enable them to interact effectively with one another and as such the children's performances in schools will be enhanced.

Furthermore, this study will be significant to the children with hearing impairment themselves. It will provide them with the effective communication strategy that would enable them to interact and understand their teachers as well as their parents. The feedback from this study will help children with hearing impairment understand instruction given to them easily. This will help them to maximize their reading potentials. The value of this study also lies in the fact that discovering an acceptable and best communication system is going to motivate the children to develop interest in reading. All these will help in improving children with hearing impairment achievement in reading comprehension and in understanding other school subjects.

The results of this study would however sensitize institutions on the best rehabilitative technique to be used in education learners with hearing impairment however, preparing teachers to develop a teacher education programme that would prepare teacher trainees for the job of developing in the pupils the ability to use appropriate communication mode in improving learning performance of children suffering from hard of hearing in other to achieve better performance in schools.

It is to this point however the researchers took a rational approach towards identifying to what extent rehabilitation will improve academic performance of learners suffering from hearing impairment in Kaduna State thereby sensitizing text book writers to provide study guides for pupils in their books. They may provide pupils with relevant and appropriate communication modes that could also help the children with hearing impairment to apply and understand any reading tasks given to them easily.

1.7 Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The scope of the study is limited to the persons suffering from hearing impairment. The independent variables in this study include American Sign Language, Local Sign Language and Total Communication as well as gender while the dependent variable is reading comprehension. So, the researcher focused on the processes involved in rehabilitating the hearing impaired persons in Kaduna State.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 Introduction

Special education is education that sets out purposely to meet the special needs of children irrespective of their disabilities. It is the education that cares for the exceptional children that deviate positively from the regular or average children in terms of giftedness or negatively in term of their handicapping condition e.g. Mental retardation. Special education is to enhance the living conditions of children with disabilities, in order for them to be acceptable to the society.

Amwe in Ozoji, (2014) says Rehabilitation education on the other hand connotes various ways of making that a person is restored back into his or her normal or former condition before an incident or circumstances brought about a change in the state of that person or thing. Rehabilitation can also refer to as a social intervention that seeks to promote human development.

2.1 CONCEPT REHABILITATION

Rehabilitation is defined as the process of helping a non-productive or deviant person towards restoration or the desired standards.

Restoration of disabled person to fullest, physical mental, vocational and economic usefulness of which they are disabled from, by natural, biological and Psycho-social. Mba, (2016).

Rehabilitation aids the disabled to achieve self-sufficiency independency, effectiveness and everlasting vocational adjustment rehabilitation requires many services including those offered by physicians, medical hospitals, special clinics schools an d rehabilitation centres, employers in both the public and private sector Mba (2016) defines rehabilitation as the process of helping a nonproductive or deviant person towards restoration or the desired standards.

According to Bitter (2016) as cited by Amwe, (2014) vocational rehabilitation entails the Restoration of disabled person to, fullest, physical mental, vocational and economic usefulness of which they are

REHABILITATION:

This could be defined as a way of bringing back people who are physically disabled or delinquent to a normal life by special treatment. It also defined as a way of restoring somebody or something back into his or its normal or former condition before an event or a circumstance brought about a change in the state of that person or thing.

HABILITATION:

Habilitation can refers to some specialized training processes for disabled person who could have sustained their disabilities from birth or before they could acquire any skills or vocation, such training are specialized because disabilities, usually preclude disabled persons from acquiring .vocational skills through some conventional methods.

2.2 Definition of Hearing Impairment?

Scholars have defined hearing impairment in various ways. We are going to examine these definitions.

Abang (2013) described hearing impairment as disability ranging from mild to profound condition and classified it into the following groups:

(a) Those with slight hearing loss;
(b) Those with mild hearing loss;
(c) Those with moderate hearing loss;
(d) Those with severe hearing loss;
(e) Those with profound hearing loss.

In a similar vein, World Health Organization WHO (2005) defined hearing impairment as complete or partial loss of ability to hear from one or both ears.

The term hearing impairment is a generic term that is made up of two distinct classes based entirely on the severity of the impairment.

These two classes or group, are the hard of hearing and deafness.

Therefore, hearing impairment is a hearing loss, whether permanent or fluctuating that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

2.3 Hearing Impairment

Various attempts have been made to classify deafness. Mykleburst in Alade (2005) classified deafness according to the following major factors.

Hard of Hearing: These are individuals in whom sense of hearing through defective is functional with or without a hearing aid. They are also referred to as individuals with partial hearing loss (Mba 2016).

Deafness can be classified according to degree of deafness.

(1) The Deaf: These are those in whom the sense of hearing is nonfunctional for the ordinary purpose of life. This group has total loss of hearing. Children who cannot hear sounds at all or above certain intensity are grouped as being deaf. A deaf person can be described as one whose hearing is disabled to an extent that his understanding of speech through ear alone with or without the use of a hearing aid.
(2) The Hard of Hearing: These are those in whom sense of hearing though defective is functional with or without hearing aids. This group has partial hearing loss.

Age of Onset of Deafness

The basis of classification are as follows:

(1) Acquired Deafness: This is also known as adventitious deafness. It refers to deafness that occurred later in life, when language and speech skills have been fully developed. The individual is born with normal hearing, but later becomes non-functional through illness or accident.
(2) Congenital Deafness: The congenitally deaf are those who are born deaf. The individual has never heard any meaningful sound nor acquired speech and language speech at all.
(3) Pre- lingual Deafness: This is a deafness present at birth or occurring early in life at an age prior to speech development and language acquisition.
(4) Sensori-neural Deafness: This includes hearing loss that results from accident diseases affecting the normal functioning of the Inner ear.
(5) Conductive Deafness: Conductive hearing loss is described as a loss resulting from defects of the conductive pathways of the ear i.e. the external and the middle ear with normal inner ear.
(6) Central Deafness: This includes all hearing loss. Which results from lack of normal functioning of the auditory pathways leading from the inner ear to the interpretive areas of the brain.

Jerger (2009) and Okuoyibo (2006) audiologically classified hearing impairment according to level of hearing loss in decibets (dB) using audiometer thus:

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