Comparisons of Hearing Impairment and Socio-Cultural Disadvantage in Relation to Verbal Retardation

Two studies are reported which illustrate the effects of hearing impairments on verbal attainments. The first compares partially hearing children with normally hearing children from ‘average’ and from priority schools. The second compares children with slight impairments of hearing who attend ordinary schools with their normally hearing peers and makes further comparisons of the hearing-impaired pupils when grouped according to social class. The comparisons highlight the harmful influence on verbal progress of different degrees and types of hearing impairment and emphasise that hearing loss is a much more serious handicap in its effects upon linguistic skills than is socio-cultural disadvantage.