Academic achievement among students with pre and post-lingual hearing impairment: Capturing perceptions of special education teachers

Students with pre-lingual hearing impairment often face challenges in academic performance. In the case of pre and post-lingual hearing impairment (HI), there are varied factors that can result in a prominent difference in their academic achievements. For this purpose, a study was conducted to compare the academic achievements of students with pre and post-lingual HI along with factors affecting their academic achievements in the perception of teachers dealing with those students in the same classroom. This research is Qualitative. Data was collected from six special education teachers through an interview-based questionnaire (open-ended), who have taught both students with pre and post-lingual HI in the same classroom. The teachers were selected through purposive sampling from two deaf schools (Hamza & Inayat Foundation) in Lahore. A self-developed open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data. For analyzing the data, content analysis and coding techniques were used. The results demonstrated the teachers’ perception that students with post-lingual HI used to learn more quickly and usually achieve higher grades than their peers with pre-lingual HI. Additionally, the factors affecting the academic achievements in these groups are language acquisition, hearing aid use, residual hearing, parental unawareness/non-cooperative behavior, and improper teaching styles & aids (poor curriculum design).