The study examined the effects of two interventions on the peer social interaction of 105 young children with and without hearing impairments. Total positive peer interaction and interaction of children with peers of different hearing status increased from preintervention to postintervention but decreased after the intervention was withdrawn. The integrated-activities intervention resulted in greater gains in total positive peer interaction than the social skills intervention. Children with hearing impairments interacted as frequently with their same-status peers as did the children without hearing impairments with their same-status peers. Results indicate the benefits of long-term interventions conducted within small, stable groups of children with and without hearing impairments.
1. Deaf people may feel like foreigners, alone and unable to relate with those in their environment. This is due to the lack of integration with and different enculturation than hearing persons. 2. Deaf individuals raised by hearing parents who cannot communicate with them may develop feelings of powerlessness and frustration. These feelings develop into doubt and distrust of all hearing people. 3. Deaf people feel more handicapped by hearing people's negative attitudes than by hearing loss itself. The elderly deaf people who perceive negative and discriminatory attitudes from hearing caregivers might be uncooperative or resentful. 4. The handicap of being deaf has a disabling effect beyond the hearing impairment and compound the effects of aging.
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