Parental Hearing Status, Reading Comprehension Skills and Social-Emotional Adjustment

The purpose of the present study was to compare educational achievement and social-emotional adjustment of hearing-impaired children of two hearing-impaired parents (HIC/HIP; N=31) and of two normally hearing parents (HIC/NHP; N=93), using data collected during a demographic and assessment study of elementary school-age hearing-impaired students in special education settings in Israel. HIC/HIP outperformed HIC/NHP in reading comprehension and teachers' ratings of emotional adjustment, self-image and motivation for communication. The findings are discussed with regard to the influence of family climate and communication method. Suggestions are made for further research and intervention strategies.