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Causes of hearing impairment in deaf pupils with a mental handicap

1999; Elsevier BV; Volume: 51; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0165-5876(99)00256-6

1872-8464

R.J.C. Admiraal, P.L.M. Huygen,

Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport

An aetiological study was performed on 122 deaf pupils (57 aged 20 years) at the Institute for the Deaf in Sint-Michielsgestel, The Netherlands. Besides hearing impairment with thresholds of >60 dB HL, all the participants had a mental handicap with a non-verbal IQ of 40–80. Sixteen per cent of them were of non-Dutch origin. The cause of hearing impairment was acquired in 48%, inherited in 17%, chromosomal in 4% and unknown in 30%. In comparison with other studies on the aetiology of childhood deafness, acquired causes predominated over inherited causes, which may be typical of deafness combined with a mental handicap. We found a significant predominance of non-Dutch pupils among the rubella aetiology cases and male predominance among the hearing impaired pupils in general.