Personnel Preparation for Multihandicapped Hearing-Impaired Students: A Review of the Literature

This article deals with the status of preparing personnel to teach multihandicapped hearing-impaired students. A review of the literature was conducted in the following areas: definition of the term multihandicapped, prevalence, school programs, teacher training programs, and program standards. It was concluded that (a) hearing impairment and any additional handicapping condition constitutes a multihandicap; (b) although prevalence rates are difficult to determine, it is estimated that one-third of all hearing-impaired students can be classified as multihandicapped; (c) appropriate school programs are lacking; (d) few teachers have been trained for this specific population; (e) there is a scarcity of teacher training programs in this area; and (f) training program standards have not been well defined.