CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Education in every society is meant to eradicate inequality among its citizens;

because to educate the mind is to remove it from shackle of fear. Education is no doubt, a

process of human enlightens and empowerment for the achievement of better and higher

quality of life. Education of children with hearing impairment is therefore aimed at

developing and harnessing the potential that abound in them. Children with hearing

impairment formed an important segment of Nigeria human resource base. If their potential

is harnessed and appropriately channeled, they can become employees and employers,

contribute to the tax base of the economy and became veritable social and economic assets.

It is anticipated that education will provide them leverage to become productive members

of Nigeria policy and society. The Universal Basic Education (UBE) which was launched

in 1999 is a relevant tool for equipping children with disability the requisite education to

help them realize their aspiration and fulfils social role. Education has long time identified

as a major vehicle for political, economic and social advancement.

Education is essential for children with learning impairment because a child who

cannot read or write is prone to developing a sense of inadequacy and or inferiority, which

is psychologically damaging. The philosophy of equal education for all children for the

restructuring of our educational system in a way that avails every child of school going age

a opportunity to success irrespective of any disabilities conditions. And this is more

relevant now that the National Policy on Education (2013) prescribed “inclusion education

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as the most realistic form of education for children with special needs” especially that

Nigerian embark on Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme. It is therefore imperative

that children with hearing impairment should not be denied their right to education, given

ample time with special materials and systematically plan programed these children can

learn as much as their normal counterparts. This may seem a herculean task to undertake;

but with supportive services and commitment by resourceful teachers most especially those

that understand the psychology of children with disabilities and their educational needs,

success can be assured. The education of children with hearing impairmen6t goes for

beyond the ability of the teacher to teach them with merely chalk and duster. This informs

why teacher of this category of children must be resourceful and dynamic (Owobi, 2016).

Hearing loss is the amount of hearing disables which individual has lost, there are

many types of hearing loss and degrees, ranging from mild to profound, individual with

mild or moderate hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids instrument but it generally

belief that severe and profound hearing loss cannot benefit from hearing loss because the

degree of hearing loss in either of them is high between 60 and above, there are different

types of hearing loss such as conduction hearing loss, mixed hearing loss, sensineural

hearing loss, symmetric hearing loss, asymmetric hearing loss, Aiyeleso, (2015). Students

with hearing impairment are students who have auditory sensory problem; the problem

prevented them using the ear organ for what is mean for. They are students who se sign

language in communication, as a result of their lack of auditory feedback they requires

special teaching in order to benefit from teaching and learning as their hearing counterparts.

Students with hearing interact and participate meaningfully in school activities the

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adjustment requires here by students with hearing impairment does not mean to given

advantages over their hearing counterparts, to change course or out coming or to guarantee

success, rather it means any action taking to help improve their interaction and also success

in their academic activities, therefore students with hearing impairment must adjust in order

to participate in learning process irrespective of peer’s discrimination, they must adjust to

adaptive (hearing impairment) they have, trust that they can live and perform well

alongside their hearing peers, social adjustment among students with hearing impairment

means acceptance of whatever condition of disability or quilt about it.

Students who are hearing impaired or hard of hearing often struggle to develop or

improve crucial literacy skills. One of the most difficult skills for them to master is reading

comprehension. According to Staden (2013), “The reading skills of many hearing impaired

children lag several years behind those of hearing children, and there is a need for

identifying reading difficulties and implementing effective reading support strategies in

this population” (p. 305). The population of students who are hearing impaired or hard of

hearing typically struggle with acquiring crucial literacy skills and/or obtaining reading

abilities. “Reading comprehension is an ongoing concern for students who are hearing

impaired or hard of hearing” (Benedict, Rivera, & Antia, 2015, p. 1) making the topic of

reading comprehension extremely important. Sullivan and Oakhill (2015) mention that

“there has been relatively little progress in improving reading comprehension in hearing

impaired readers despite decades of research” (p. 134), proving a need for further research

into this topic.

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 The lack of literacy skills in students who are hearing impaired or hard of hearing

leads to their struggle in the secondary schools as well as throughout their tertiary

institution, unlike their hearing peers. Hoffman and Wang (2010) note that:

Research in to the academic achievement of students who are hearing impaired or hard of

hearing often finds that the performance of many children in this population falls

significantly below that of their typical hearing peers on many measures and across many

domains. (p. 131)

In order for these students to perform well academically and graduate with the skills

necessary to further their education, teachers of the hearing impaired need to be made

aware of any methods or strategies they can be used to successfully support the

development of reading comprehension skills in their students. Unfortunately, “One of the

major challenging tasks of educators of hearing impaired students is to enhance the reading

comprehension performance of their students” (Nikolaraizi, Vekiri, & Easterbrooks, 2013,

p. 485). Part of this challenge is that students who are hearing impaired or hard of hearing

often fail to grasp that the point of reading is to understand what they are reading, not just

read the words.

Students who are hearing impaired develop language and literacy skills in somewhat of a

different way than students who are hearing. One example of this is incidental learning.

Students who are hearing acquire some of their language from parents, siblings, TV, and

radio. Students who are hearing impaired are less exposed to language during their early

years, especially if their parents are hearing and do not learn sign language. As Friedmann

and Szterman (2010) note, “Many children whose hearing is impaired receive limited

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language input during the sensitive period for language acquisition” (p. 212). In addition

to limited language input, many of the strategies used to help hearing students improve

their literacy skills often need to be modified for students who are hearing impaired.

Assistive technology has been defined by different educators and professionals

around the world. In a common sense of the researcher of this study, Assistive Technology

Devices (ATD) are equipment mean to help person with disability in many ways depends

on the nature of the disability. For the deaf, assistive technology may be used to improve

their hearing capabilities and for blind their assistive technology devices may include tape

recorders to record lectures speech and also talking calculator when solving simple

mathematical problems. The definition of assistive technology devices according to

International Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) as any item, piece of equipment or

product system, whether acquired commercially of off the shelf modified, or customized,

that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with

disabilities including those with hearing impairment. This definition of ATD device by

IDEA that hearing impairment aids, phone text messages, and other devices such as

projectors are parts of ATD that can assist deaf to learn or get access to information easily

than without those items mentioned. Assistive technology device are mostly the application

of technology in human life to assist where an individual is having disabilities that will

reduce its educational capabilities.

It is not a hear-say that ATD help those with disabilities especially those with hearing

impairment. Learning can be meaningful if an individual have his/her sense organs active.

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The sense that information can be acquired which include the ear, eye, nose and so on. Any

individual whose hearing organ not functional as normal may likely not to perform

satisfactory academically with the use of ATD. The realist school of thought epistemology

have it that an individual can know something through seeing, hearing, touching, smelling

and tasting because by touching or hearing a sound(speech) for instance, a connection is

made between object and mind (Musa, 2008). This assertion is in line with IDEA (2004)

that ATD is a great equalizing forces in education and meaningful inclusion of students

with disabilities both in terms of access to the general curriculum and in facilitating the

ability of students to demonstrate mastery of their areas of study.

The results of research work to improve the welfare of persons with hearing

impairment by professionals of special education bring into life the application of

knowledge gained from science for human consumption popularly refers to as technology.

Technology encompasses instruments, machines and devices which people develop and

use in their lives to improve products both quantity and quality. The use of technology to

enable an individual to perform a particular task which his/her impairment cannot permit,

bring into life what is referred to as assistive technology. Assistive technology is referred

to as an umbrella term which deals with assistive, adoptive rehabilitative device for people

with disabilities to effectively use to perform a particular task to do. There are different

kind of assistive technology which are use to improve life’s condition of a person with

disabilities. Hence, with the coming and applying of assistive technology in teaching

children with hearing impairment enable them face life events especially academic

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performance, which is the focus of this research work. The researcher therefore appreciates

the use of assistive technology in educating students with hearing impairment.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

It is a well-known fact that children with hearing impairment have problem in

communication, they grow up without vocal language, the few that are lucky to have

received speech and language therapy skill perform badly in terms of listening, vocal

communication vocabulary, words, among others, this lead to many parents embracing the

use of assistive technology to facilitate communication to their children with hearing

impairment because they cannot hear of discriminate sounds.

Assistive technology device play an important role in the education of persons with hearing

impairment. The students who have hearing problems in perceiving or receiving

information through their hearing organ may need hearing aids as one of the most popular

ATD used worldwide by those with hearing impairment to acquire information within their

environment including school. Lack of information during teaching and learning process

may hinder or slow the pace of learners with hearing impairment in the classroom. Where

there is no effective in the classroom between teachers and their learners means learning

does not take place especially in university of Jos where there is no enough interpreters to

help the hearing impaired acquire information from lecturers during classes.

Since assistive technology device help children with hearing impairment acquire

information within their environment and school. Information can be acquired through the

sense organs such as ear aid (assistive technology). Student with hearing impairment learn

and perform poorly in class. The role of assistive technology devices such as hearing aids

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which help the hearing impaired students gain access to information from their teachers in

the classroom is critical in learning. This lack of assistive technology for learning for

children with hearing impairment is a matter of concern to the researcher and the problem

the researcher intends to investigate.

Students who are hearing impaired often suffer setback when it comes to learning

of reading comprehension. Their inability to hear what the teacher is saying often hampers

their performance in reading comprehension. It is this problem that motivated the

researcher to examine the impact of reading assistive technology on children with hearing

impairment in learning reading comprehension in secondary schools in Pankshin Local

Government Area of Plateau State.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to investigate into the impact of reading assistive

technology on children with hearing impairment in learning reading comprehension in

secondary schools in Government Pilot Secondary School Dutsin-ma Local Government

of Katsina state. Specifically, the objective are:

1. To determine the performance of students who were exposed to reading using

assistive technology and those who were not exposed to it in answering

comprehension questions.

2. To find out the difference in the performance of students who were taught reading

with assistive technology and those who were taught without it in determining the

message in the reading passage.

3. To determine the challenges faced by teachers in using reading assistive technology.

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 4. To proffer some remedial measure which can be used to mitigate the challenges.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions were raised to guide the study:

1. What are the performance of students who were exposed to reading assistive

technology and those who were not exposed to it in answering comprehension

questions?

2. What are the difference in the performance of students who were taught with reading

assistive technology and those who were taught without it in determining the

message in the reading passage?

3. What are the challenges faced by teachers in using reading assistive technology?

4. What are some remedial measure which can be used to mitigate the challenges?

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study when completed may benefit the following stakeholders: Sign language

interpreters, students, parents.

Students: Students with hearing impairment who are the final consumer of reading

assistive technology will benefit from the study because there will be frequent use of

reading assistive devices and this will transform into more output in the academic

performance of students with hearing impairment in reading comprehension.

The research findings will enlighten school administrator and advocacy to stand for

the right and demand for the provision of related services from government and other

agencies.

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 The study will help teachers to improve the instructional quality by integrating the

use of assistive technology device in teaching children with hearing impairment.

The work will serve as an opportunity for teachers to acquire knowledge and

technical know-how of manipulating audio logical equipment and other supportive

services.

This work will help researchers and educators in particular to develop more viable

aspects in special education field.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This study covers impact of reading assistive technology on the performance of

students with hearing impairment in reading. The study will be restricted to Government

Pilot Secondary School Dutsin-ma Local Government of Katsina state. Despite the fact

that the study is limited to the selected secondary schools, the study will be generalized to

other parts of the state and country at large.

1.7 Operational Definition of Terms

The terms are defined according to their usage in this study.

Disability: It is the inability of the individual to function well without an interpreter

because of lack of hearing.

Impairment: It is a damage done to the tissue of hearing that leads to hearing impairment

which calls to use an interpreter.

Students with hearing Impairment: These are groups of students who have hearing loss

that hinder them to access information through hearing which they depend on assistive

technologies.

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Academic performance: It is defined as how students with hearing impairment achieve

in the class with or with the aid of sign language interpreter.

Technology: Scientific knowledge used in partial ways in industry.

Assistive Technology: Tools which promote greater independence at performing one’s

task.

Reading: Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension,

fluency, and motivation. It is also the making of meaning from a print or written materials.

Special School: is the practice of educating students in a way that provides

accommodations that address their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs.

These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher

level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community, which may

not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

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