Developing a Rehabilitation and Educational Needs Assessment Tool for Mainstreamed Primary School Students with Hearing Loss

Students with special needs might face a variety of educational and rehabilitation needs. The present study was conducted to develop a rehabilitation and educational needs assessment tool for mainstreamed primary school students with hearing loss.
The first draft of the tool was designed according to a review of four tools designed for assessment of rehabilitation and educational needs for hearing impaired and deaf students in other countries. A total of 14 experts were invited and their viewpoints were obtained to assess the face and content validity of the instrument. To determine the clarity of the text, internal consistency and test-retest reliability, 51 mainstreamed primary school students with hearing loss in the cities of Eslamshahr, Robat Karim, Qarchak, and Varamin as well as their teachers were asked to complete related parts of the questionnaire. Lawasche Method was used to calculate Content Validity Index. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to examine internal consistency, and test-retest reliability was examined using calculating Intra-class Correlation Coefficient.
The tool was designed in two parts; ‘student replying’ and ‘teacher replying’ with 35 questions in six subscales. The face validity was confirmed by the experts’ opinion. Content Validity Ratios of all questions were more than 0.71 and Content Validity Index was 0.93. Cronbach's alpha in subscales of needs for rehabilitation of hearing, speech, psychology, educational needs, self- advocacy in cognitive problems, and self- advocacy in hearing aids were 0.831, 0.840, 0,819, 0.851, 0.823, and 0.785, respectively. In calculating test-retest reliability, Intra-class Correlation Coefficients scores in all sub-scales were more than 0.940.
Rehabilitation and educational needs assessment tool for mainstreamed primary school students with hearing loss is a valid and reliable tooland after determining cut of points, it can be used in determining the needs of mainstreamed primary school students with hearing loss.