A STUDY OF FUNCTIONAL ABILITY OF HEARING IMPAIRED (HI) STUDENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR GENDER AND SCHOOL CATEGORY

Present study focuses on studying the functional ability of HI students in inclusive and special schools. The objectives of the study were - (i) to study the functional status of hearing impaired (HI) students in special schools on (a) ‘learning and applying knowledge', (b) ‘general task & demands' and (c) ‘communication' dimensions with reference to their gender (ii) to study the functional status of hearing impaired (HI) students in inclusive schools on (a) ‘learning and applying knowledge', (b) ‘general task & demands' and (c) ‘communication' dimensions with reference to their gender and (iii) to study the functional status of hearing impaired (HI) students on (a) ‘learning and applying knowledge', (b) ‘general task & demands' and (c) ‘communication' dimensions with reference to their school category. This study was performed on 113 HI students in inclusive schools and 69 HI students in special schools selected using purposive sampling method from inclusive and special schools of Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, India. Major findings of the study were – (i) there were no significant differences found between the functional status of hearing impaired (HI) students (boys and girls) in special schools on ‘learning and applying knowledge' and ‘general task & demands' dimensions (ii) the significant difference was found between hearing impaired (HI) students (boys and girls) in special schools in ‘communication' dimension (iii) the differences were significant between the functional status of hearing impaired (HI) students (boys and girls) in inclusive schools on ‘learning and applying knowledge' and ‘communication' (iv) the difference between the functional status of hearing impaired (HI) students (boys and girls) in inclusive schools was not significant on ‘general task & demands' dimension (v) hearing impaired (HI) boys and girls were not significantly differing on the functional status of ‘learning and applying knowledge' dimension over their school categories and (vi) hearing impaired (HI) boys and girls were differing significantly on the functional status of ‘general task and demands' and ‘communication' dimensions over their school categories.