Nature of Hearing, Visual and Intellectual Impairment - Literature review Example

Download file to see previous pages This section contains a discussion on the definition as well as the nature of each of the three disabilities and the characteristics of the individuals who are affected by the disabilities. The second issue is the characteristics of learning difficulties associated with the three disability types. This section presents a review of literature relating to how each of the three disabilities impairs the ability of the affected children to attain learning outcomes as compared to children who do not have any of these disabilities. The third section of the literature review is a discussion on the different types of assistive technologies used to support learning for children with any of the three disabilities that are the focus of this study, and the benefits of using these technologies. Finally, the fourth section of the literature review presents the context of the study by discussing how various research studies have reported on the use of technology to assist children with disabilities in Saudi Arabia.

• Nature of hearing, visual and intellectual impairment

Individuals living with hearing impairment, visual impairment and intellectual disability face different challenges depending on the severity of the disability that they have. As far as the author concerns, there are a lot of studies related to hearing impairment and visual impairment (e.g. Jamal, Daghistani & Zakzouk, 2001; Fageeh, 2003; Al-hano, 2006; Alfaraj & Kuyini, 2014), but not a lot of studies related to intellectual disability in Saudi Arabia. However, since the three disabilities are related in the context of them leading to intellectual disabilities (Al-hano, 2006; Miller & Kiani, 2008), it is important to study them together.

It is important to understand each of the three disabilities in terms of how each one impacts the affected individuals and the challenges that these individuals face with respect to learning and interacting with others, including teachers and their colleagues. overall it has been noted that people who are born with any kind of disability or who become impaired at some stage of their life encounter many problems in comparison to individuals who do not have any disability (Kbar, Al-Daraiseh, Aly, Abidi & Mian, 2016; Kbar, Bhatia, Abidi & Alsharawy, 2016). The nature of the three disabilities being discussed in this review is described below.

• Hearing impairment
• Hearing impairment is a condition that affects people of all ages and can occur at any point in the life span of an individual, from infancy to old age (Ollendick & Schroeder, 2003). Hеаring imраirmеnt or hearing disability is defined as the “reduced function or loss of the normal function of the hearing mechanism” (Inciong, Quijano, Capulong, Gregorio & Gines, 2007, p. 205). As noted by Hasselbring and Glaser (2000), students who have a hearing impairment are those who have a hearing problem that interrupts their capacity to process linguistic information via the normal auditory processes or without amplification of the information. 

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