Abstract
We investigated the actual status of enrollment of hearing-impaired young children with some other disabilities, or a tendency towards developmental disabilities (ADHD, PDD, etc.) which had not been diagnosed medically, in kindergarten schools for the deaf. According to the responses, about 31% of the young children had some disabilities in addition to hearing impairment, and about 19% of the young children had associated or suspected developmental disabilities. We also investigated the developmental characteristics of the hearing-impaired young children with, or suspected to have, ADHD. The results revealed that while no significant differences in the developmental characteristics were observed at the age of 3 years between the hearing-impaired young children without other disabilities and hearing-impaired young children with, or suspected to have, ADHD, significant differences between the two groups were found in the speech perception ability, language development, and use of communication media (spoken words, lip reading, written words) at the age of 4-5 years. Also, about 36% of hearing-impaired young children with, or suspected to have, ADHD showed delay of manual fine motor development, and about 10% of hearing-impaired young children with, or suspected to have, ADHD tics.
