Background and Aim: Hearing impairment through the primary episode of development has an undeniable effect on communicative language and cognitive ability of children. The purpose of this study was to compare primary verbal, nonverbal and mathematical concept formation, between children with and without hearing impairment.
Methods: In this study 88 children with normal and impaired hearing were compared in four-, five- and six-year old age groups. Normal children were selected randomly and the other group consisted of the available children with impaired hearing. To evaluate verbal, nonverbal and mathematic concepts, a test was designed and developed based on language and cognitive developmental scale in normal children.
Results: Significant difference was seen in the average scores in each concept class between normal and impaired hearing group in all age groups (p<0.05). There was no statistical significance between girls and boys. Hearing groups had statistical significant difference in each group of concepts (p<0.001). Age had statistical significance only in mathematics&apos concepts (p=0.001).
Conclusions: This study supports the necessity of assessing the understanding of verbal, nonverbal and mathematic concepts, as well as cognitive and verbal skills in children with hearing impairment, prior to any formal education program planning. The curriculum should be arranged according to these abilities and skills. Otherwise it would be hardly practical and functional for these children to go through the curriculum which is planned without any notion to their basic abilities.

Background and Aim: Research indicates that impaired hearing is one of the most stressful disabilities. The parenting stress involved could lead to family malfunction and improper parenting. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of positive parenting programs on the parenting stress of mothers with impaired hearing children.

Methods: The statistical population comprised mothers of all 7-12-year-old impaired hearing children in Tehran city. Thereafter, using the random sampling method, 24 individuals were shortlisted as research participants and were randomly assigned to two groups: control and experimental. The experimental group was trained with a positive parenting program based on the Sanders program (1993) over eight sessions. The measurement instrument was the Abidin parenting stress questionnaire.

Results: The mean score for grades in the experimental groups’ parent and child domains at the pre- and post-test stages had reduced more than that in the control group. In addition, the results of a multivariate covariance analysis indicated that positive parenting training was effective in the reduction of parenting stress scores, reinforcement, and child mood components in the child domain, and in the feelings of competence, relationships with the spouse, and role limitation components (p<0.05) in the parent domain.

Conclusion : Considering the benefits of training parents for the reduction of parenting stress of mothers with impaired hearing children, this method is recommended in all learning centers for the deaf.