Impact of using hearing aid and its benefits : survey of in stitutes for the deaf children

الملخص EN

Hearing impaired children from Al-Amal boys and girls institutes for the deaf and girls integrated classes in the public school in Riyadh city, were approached to study the benefits of using hearing aids.

A questionnaire was designed in Arabic and sent to parents of 900 hearing impaired students.

The questionnaire contained in addition to name, age, time of discovering hearing loss - the use of hearing aid, benefits of amplification, the impact on verbal communication, repair and satisfaction by students and parents.

400 of 450 (88.9%) responses were obtained from the girls' institutes while 300 responses (66.7%) were obtained from the boys' institutes.

85.43% of the students were using hearing aids which were either provided by institutes or bought by the parents.

63.14% were benefitted from using the hearing aids.

50% girls and 51.3% boys received amplification before entering the institutes, and 76.57% of the parents reported positive attitude towards using the aids.

59.85% (N=700) of the parents reported improvement / increased verbal vocalization of their children, after speech therapy as part of their rehabilitation program.

There are several issues related to hearing aids such as the type, cost, maintenance, cleaning and changing of batteries