A Preliminary Report of the Audiological Profile of Hearing Impaired Pupils in Inclusive Schools in Lagos State, Nigeria
Abstract
Purpose: The programme to enrol hearing impaired pupils in inclusive schools in Lagos State, Nigeria, has been endorsed recently and is at a transitional phase. The study assessed the audiological profile of the enrolled pupils with hearing impairment.
Methods: After a random selection of 7 designated inclusive primary schools in Lagos State, a two-stage study was conducted. First, a questionnaire documenting audiological history was administered to the pupils with hearing impairment. This was followed by pure tone audiometry.
Results: Study participants were between 4 and 26 years of age (mean 12.8±4.1). About 158 (96.9%) of them had bilateral profound hearing loss. Method of communication for 132 (81%) was by sign language, followed by lip reading for 56(34.4%).
Conclusion: Severity of hearing impairment was profound among this category of enrolled students. Most of them had probably been transferred from schools for the Deaf to inclusive schools. Less severe degrees of hearing impairment may have been detected if audiological assessment had been mandatory for all the school children.Full text article
Authors
Copyright (c) 2019 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License By-NC-ND 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).