1986 Volume 27 Issue 3 Pages 229-234
We studied the development of writing skills in 15 hearing-impaired children who were integrated in regular primary schools and received part-time therapy. Their achievements were compared with those of children with normal hearing.
The hearing level of the subjects was 89.9 dB on the average. They showed an average grade placement gap of almost a year in reading ability in the sixth grade.
The subjects were assessed for their writing skills once a year over a period of more than three years. The test required the subjects to write a composition about what they observed in a series of pictures. The results were as follows:
1. Writing skills improved as school grade and reading ability levels got higher, though difficulties varied according to the degree of hearing loss and reading ability.
2. The good writers in early grades were the good writers in higher grades and vice versa.
We concluded that, for good development of writing skills, language acquisition during early grades was very important, and to improve the writing skills of hearing-impaired children individual approaches were needed.
