Background and Aim: Cued speech as a kind of communication method, is a system which utilizes several hand configurations and locations to supplement the normal visible manifestations of speech. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of Persian cued speech on the speech discrimination scores of hearing impaired children.
Methods: Sixteen 9-12 years old profoundly hearing impaired children were divided into two matched-groups of cases and controls. Cases were taught cued speech in a five-month period of 45-60 minutes daily therapy. Speech discrimination score test was tested pretest, post-test and three-week follow-up test in both groups. Mixed repeated measurement was used to analyze the repeated measures data.
Results: There was a significant difference between pretest (without cued speech) and the other two tests of post-test and follow-up (both with cued speech) in cases. The speech perception scores of the cases were almost completed (p=0.001) after cued speech practicing but no significant difference was seen in speech perception scores of control group.(p>0.05)
Conclusion: The results indicate that Persian cued speech is an efficient tool to increase speech discrimination scores of hearing impaired children.

Background and Aim: Having healthy non-handicapped children plays a major role in mental health of the family and decreases family and society&aposs costs. While consanguineous marriage could lead to expression of recessive genes and a variety of handicaps including deafness, the aim of present study was to scrutinize the prevalence of consanguineous marriage among parents of deaf and normal children as well as its relationship with deafness.
Methods: In this study, 467 couples parenting normal children were selected by cluster sampling from elementary, guidance and high schools of Ardabil city and 423 couples parenting disabled children were selected non-randomly among which 130 had deaf children. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the prevalence of consanguineous marriage and chi-square test to compare prevalence of consanguineous marriage among parents of normal and deaf children.
Results: Descriptive analyses showed that 80 out of 130 (61.54%) parents who had deaf children have had consanguineous marriage. Furthermore data analysis demonstrated that prevalence of consanguineous marriage was significantly higher among parents of deaf children (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Consanguineous marriage plays a major role in expression of recessive genes and could lead to development of various handicaps including deafness. Increasing couples&apos awareness about consequences of consanguineous marriage and conducting genetic counseling are indispensable.

Background and Aim: In different language approaches, reading is considered as a major skill. Language skills comprising listening, speaking, reading and writing are completely interlinked with each other. Thus, providing active application of listening and speaking skills, children will learn reading and writing skills easily. The aim of this research was to compare reading skills of hearing-loss students studying at exceptional schools with normal students of different degrees.
Methods: The research was conducted post-traumatically using standardized 2006 PIRLS test. 80 students in fifth grade of exceptional primary schools, and first and fourth grade of exceptional high schools in Tehran City who had severe and or profound hearing loss were randomly selected along with 80 normal students in ordinary schools who were selected using available sampling method.
Results: There were significant differences between reading comprehension of hearing-loss and normal students of all three grades (p<0.001). Reading comprehension in female students was significantly higher than the male ones (p<0.001). There were not any significant differences in mean reading comprehension scores of hearing-loss students in different grades which demonstrate that their reading skills had not developed in tandem with their age and school educations.
Conclusion: This study shows that one of the significant concerns regarding hearing-loss students is their reading comprehension ability. Considering reading ability as one of the most important acquisitive abilities which students learn at school, evaluation of reading skills of hearing loss students as well as recognition of their strengths and weaknesses in this field is indispensable.

Background and Aim: Hearing impaired individuals, who have undergone cochlear implantation, do not have satisfactory relationships with their peers and cannot be fully integrated into the hearing communities. The main purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a family-oriented social skills training program on cochlear implant users.
Methods: In this experimental study, 16 volunteer families consisting of mothers and their 12-19 year old children, who had undergone cochlear implantation at least two years in advance, were chosen from 328 families, members of the Hearing Rehabilitation Association of Iran. They responded to social skills rating scale as pre-test after they were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group underwent a 12-session social skills training. The social skills rating scale was then administered as a post-test in the two groups.
Results: The results showed the effectiveness of the family-oriented social skills training program on assertion (p<0.01), self-controlling (p<0.01), and general social skills (p<0.01) however, they showed no significant effect on cooperation (p>0.05).
Conclusion: The study revealed that family-oriented social skills training program is effective in improving the social skills of individuals with cochlear implantation. Therefore, this training program can be employed to improve these skills as an integral part of the rehabilitation program.