Language and Socio-emotional Development of Congenitally Deaf Learners

Abstract

This study attempts to explore, describe and explain the effects of pre-lingual deafness on deaf language and socio-emotional development of students. Qualitative case study design was used to investigate and explore the problems from four sampled deaf students’, their mothers’, and two teachers’ perspectives. The empirical data was based mainly on interviews with the participants. Observations, informal talks and focus group discussions were used as a supplement and a complement to the interview method. Results show that the deaf students, as a result of their poor verbal communication, their linguistic, emotional and social development seemed to be deprived and they may not obtain the same quality of life in comparison to their hearing peers. Hence, congenitally deaf learners should be identified and get accesses to language learning early in life. 

[1] PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Special Needs Education, CEBS, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia Email: alemayehutm@yahoo.com or alemayehu.tmariam@aau.edu.et.