[Hearing status of the blind school boys]

Objective: A survey on hearing state of blind schoolboys in Tehran

Method and Material: This cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted on 640 ears of 320 blind schoolboys of 5-23 years old as a hearing screening in Tehran blind schools, 2000-01

Results: 20.94% was hearing-impaired of whom 13.75% had bilateral and 7.19% had unilateral hearing loss. 15.16% of students suffered from sensory-neural hearing loss [SNHL], 1.56% from conductive hearing loss [CHL] and 0.62% from mixed hearing loss [MHL], that is, SNHL occurred 10 times more than CHL. Hearing loss was often mild and moderate, and audiogram configuration was primarily high tone loss [HTL]. On the whole, 8.13% of students needed medical treatment, 15.13% needed audiological rehabilitation and 3.44% of them were in need of both medical and rehabilitation Intervention. General information about hearing problem was very low among students, their parents and teachers, which was 26.87%, 20.9% and 22.39%, respectively. There is significant relation between SNHL and parents and apos relationship

Conclusion: The prevalence of hearing loss in blinds is higher than in normal-visions. It is often sensorineural. So, it is important to identify these children through hearing screening [Using more high frequencies] and to conduct medical as well as rehabilitative intervention

[Rhyme and syllable recognition in severe to profound hearing-impaired children]

Objective: A research was conducted to assess the phonological awareness in hearing-impaired children in comparison to normal children. In this context, we discussed about the ability of these children in identification of rhyme and word segmentation to syllables

Method and Material: The sample of this study is composed of 320 children, 160 normal and 160 hearing-impaired with a hearing-loss. Of over 70 dB, studying in the 1st t 4th grade of the primary schools in Tehran. They are divided into two groups at each level [20 girls and 20 boys]

Results: 1] Hearing-impaired children scores on test related to rhyme and syllable is lower as compared with normal children. 2] Hearing-impaired children are more potent on test of word segmentation to syllables in comparison to that related to rhyme, while normal children are more successful on test of word segmentation to syllables as compared with that related to rhyme

Discussion: Hearing is an important factor in phonological awareness. Formal education at special schools compensate for the hearing impairment as to development of the phonological awareness