Needs assessment : a handbook on special health problems of hearing-impaired children

The purpose of this study was to determine the teachers' perceptions regarding the health status of their pupils. Responses received furnished information on the types and degree of severity of health problems encountered by the students. The information formed the basis of selection of subject matter for a handbook on the special health problems of hearing-impaired children.

The questionnaire was developed, pretested and redeveloped. It was sent to a random sample of teachers for hearing-impaired children by incorporating a two-stage cluster sampling technique. An 89.5 percent response was obtained.

The type of health concerns considered to be problematic for hearing-impaired youngsters did not vary between teachers of public residential or public day schools.

There was found to be a significant variation between teachers' perceptions at public residential schools and public day schools with respect to the observance of three illnesses: common cold, conjunctivitis and meningitis.

Results indicated that the nature of health problems encountered by the students lay in the cognitive realm of experience and that these pupils had an information deficit with respect to certain subject matter areas. There was, indeed, a need for a handbook and the manual should offer instruction in "understanding the body," and "sex education."