Objective: A survey on hearing state of blind schoolboys in Tehran.
Method and Material: This cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted on 640 ears of 320 blind schoolboys of 5-23 years old as a hearing screening in Tehran blind schools, 2000-01.
Results: 20.94% was hearing-impaired of whom 13.75% had bilateral and 7.19% had unilateral hearing loss. 15.16% of students suffered from sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL), 1.56% from conductive hearing loss (CHL) and 0.62% from mixed hearing loss (MHL), that is, SNHL occurred 10 times more than CHL. Hearing loss was often mild and moderate, and audiogram configuration was primarily high tone loss (HTL). On the whole, 8.13% of students needed medical treatment, 15.13% needed audiological rehabilitation and 3.44% of them were in need of both medical and rehabilitation Intervention. General information about hearing problem was very low among students, their parents and teachers, which was 26.87%, 20.9% and 22.39%, respectively. There is significant relation between SNHL and parents&apos relationship.
Conclusion: The prevalence of hearing loss in blinds is higher than in normal-visions. It is often sensorineural. So, it is important to identify these children through hearing screening (Using more high frequencies) and to conduct medical as well as rehabilitative intervention.

Objective: Obtaining the diadochokinetic syllable rates standard among the elementary students in 3, 8, and 19 educational zones in Tehran.
Materials and Methods: 1997 students (980 girls and 1017 boys) randomly selected and examined. Frequency of /pa/, /ta/, /ka/ and /pataka/ in 5 seconds and the number of seconds for producing /pa/, /ta/, /ka/ and /pataka/ for 15 times were recorded for every student.
Results: There is significant difference between means of time and frequency with increasing age. Means of some syllable rates were significantly different between girls and boys.
Conclusion: Mean of syllable frequency was increased and the mean of syllable repetition time was decreased with increasing age. On the whole, boys seems to repeat syllables faster than the girls do.

Background and Aim: The purpose of this research is to study the standardization of speaking and reading rates in a group of normal speaker of female students, and to compare them. As the rate of speech is an important variable in the evaluation and treatment of stuttering, cluttering, dysarthria and apraxia.

Materials and Method: One hundred of second grade students of primary school and an equal number of fifth grade students participated in this study. All subjects were native speakers of Farsi, who passed an informal, screening test of articulation and speech. None of the subjects had a history of speech, hearing, or neurological disorders. The subjects were asked to read from the 180 words portion of their Farsi book and tell story. Their speech was recorded by using a tape recorder. Then the data were analyzed for word and syllable rate. In transcribing the samples, single morpheme was counted as single word and compound words were counted as two words if they had two free morphemes. Non-word interjections were excluded from word and syllable counts while word interjections and repeated words were included in the count. Independent t-test and paired t-test were used for analyzing.

Results: In the second grade students the reading rate is, on the average, 189.4 syllable per minute (SPM)(94.9 word per minute(WPM), 3.1 syllable per second(SPS)) and the talking rate is 189.8 SPM (99.1 WPM, 3.1 SPS) and in the fifth grade student the reading rate is 223.9 SPM (119.0 WPM, 3.7SPS) and the talking rate is 210.26 SPM (109.5 WPM , 3.4 SPS).

Conclusion: The result highlight that in the fifth grade students, reading rates are higher than talking rates while in the second grade they are not, because they do not have enough skills for whole word reading. A remarkable finding in this research is that, reading and talking rates in the fifth grade students are higher than the second grade students.

Background and Aim: Reading is one of the human's communicative skills. Phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming are parts of the person's linguistic knowledge. Research in different languages and communities suggest that there is a relation between phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming and reading. To survey these relations in Persian language is the aim of this study.

Methods: In this study 130 male students from the first grade were selected at random. They were normal in IQ, visual and hearing status. Language development was also normal in these children. This study was a cross-sectional one. Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression test were used to analyze data.

Results: The relation between phonological awareness and automatized rapid naming was significant (p<0.0001). Pearson correlation coefficient between phonological awareness and reading was direct (0.86). Pearson correlation coefficient between rapid automatized naming and reading was indirect that equals -0.87. In investigating the relation of two variables simultaneously with reading we concluded that the relation between phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming and reading is statistically significant (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: The results of this research revealed that in Persian language like other languages there is a relation between phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and reading. Reading skills of children could be improved with this exercises.

Background and Aim: Hearing-impaired students have some delays in learning language skills such as reading because of hearing loss. To study the effect of promoting educational level on the development of reading comprehension, the students of the 4^th grade of elementary and last year guidance school were compared based on international test of reading literacy.
Methods: The project was cross-sectional and the tool used was the international standard booklet of PIRLS 2001. Thirty-six students selected with moderately severe and severe hearing loss from the 4^th grade of elementary and last year guidance school from Shahriar, Robatkarim, Karaj and Hashtgerd, Iran, exceptional schools. Comparative statistical analysis was performed using t-test.
Results: The first level (focus on and retrieve explicity information) showed a meaningful difference between the last year guidance school and the 4^th grade of elementary students (p<0.05), but there were no significant differences in other levels, make straightforward information-interpret and integrate ideas-examine and evaluate content, (p> 0.05).
Conclusion: Hearing-impaired students have difficulties in understanding in deep levels of reading despite promoting educational level. Thus, in making policies for special trainings, continuing the rehabilitation in guidance and high school levels to promote the complex levels of comprehension should be taken more into consideration.

Background and Aim: Hearing impairment can effect many educational abilities and will lead in a dealy in his growth. The objective of this research was to study the effect of hearing impairment on mathematical skill of hearing-impaired students of 4^th grade of elementary in contrast with normal-hearing students.
Methods: The project was cross-sectional and the tool used was the international standard booklet of mathematical questions. There has been 35 hearing-impaired students with range of moderately sever-profound hearing loss selected from the 4^th grade of elementary from exceptional schools in Ray, Pakdasht and Varamina, Iran, and 35 normal-hearing students were randomly selected from ordinary schools next to exceptional schools.
Results: By analyzing the outcomes, the normal-hearing students showed a better result in knowing, application, argument in aspects of cognitive in contrast with hearing-impaired students and there has been a meaningful difference (p<0.05). There was not a meaningful difference in mathematical skill between Ray, Pakdasht and Varamina, Iran in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing groups.
Conclusion: The hearing impairment effects learing of mathematical skill. It is important for hearing-impaired students to presentation various methods in instruction in progress deductive thought and cognitive structure and also development in concepts understand in mathematical domain in rehabilitation services.

Background and Aim: Children with severe and profound hearing loss have difficulties in communicating with others and educating at school. Effects of learning environment on children&aposs language skills have been recently focused and educating those students in ordinary schools has been proposed. According to this view, we compared perception of antonyms and synonyms as a semantic aspect of language in students of ordinary, integrated and special schools.
Methods: It was an analytic cross-sectional study. Three groups of students were enrolled: normal-hearing students of ordinary schools and hearing-loss students of integrated and specials schools. Each group consisted of 25 students in fifth grade of elementary schools in Tehran city. Two written tests were used. Subjects wrote synonyms and antonyms for each word in the tests.
Results: Results denoted significant differences between scores of normal-hearing and hearing-loss students and also between hearing-loss students of integrated schools and hearing-loss students of special schools (p<0.05). In all three groups of the students, perception of antonyms was better than antonyms (p<0.001). Speech processing rate in normal-hearing students were higher than both groups of hearing-loss students (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The differences between normal-hearing and hearing-loss students shows that similar to other language skills, perception of synonyms and antonyms as a semantic aspect of speech is related to the hearing conditions and type of education. Moreover, the differences between two groups of hearing-loss students represent that speech stimulants and interaction with normal-hearing children could improve semantic aspect of speech in hearing-loss students.

Background and Aim: The majority of people experience problems and stressors, such as job layoffs and illnesses during their lives. However, the way people cope with stress varies. According to previous research, use of effective coping strategies can significantly reduce stress and tension. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of stress coping strategies on hearing-impaired students.
Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and control group. The sample consisted of 40 hearing-impaired male students of guidance and high schools of the city of Sari, Iran, in the years 2010 and 2011. They were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental and control groups (n=20). The data collection tool was the General Health Questionnaire-28. The experimental group was administered eight sessions of stress coping strategies based on cognitive-behavioral techniques two hours weekly. Data were analyzed using statistical indices including mean, standard deviation, and two-way analysis of variance.
Results: There was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores in the subscales of somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, depression, and social function (p<0.05). Moreover, after the eight sessions the rate of general health of the experimental group was higher than the control group.
Conclusion: Stress coping strategies based on cognitive-behavioral techniques increased the general health of hearing-impaired people. Therefore, stress management training should be developed and expanded as an appropriate intervention.

Background and Aim: Some evidence suggests that hearing impairment has negative effect on psychological characters of hearing-impaired adolescences and they are more vulnerable to mental health problems than their hearing peers are. This was a comparative study of social skills, life satisfaction and external and internal locus of control in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired students.

Methods: T his multi-stage random sampling method consisted of 50 students with hearing impairment (boy and girls) and 50 matched normal-hearing students. The participants completed Matson evaluation of social skills with youngster, students life satisfaction, and Levenson multidimensional locus of control scales.

Results: The results of multivariate analysis of variance showed statistically meaningful differences in social skills , life satisfaction and locus of control between the two groups (p=0.002 for all).

Conclusion: Social skills in normal-hearing students were higher than students with hearing impairment and locus of control in normal student was more internally. Training the parents and school-staff on development of locus of control and making it more internally in hearing-impaired students is suggested.

Background and Aim: Phonological awareness (consisting of phoneme, syllable and intra-syllable awareness) is an important part of receptive and expressive language it facilitates reading and writing skills through phonological re-coding. Multiple studies in several languages have studied the relationship between phonological awareness and dictation. This research is based on a study of the relationship between phonological skill and spelling score in first-grade Persian students.

Methods: Four hundred first-grade students participated in the study, including 209 girls and 191 boys. A phonological awareness test was individually administered for each student and then a spelling exam was administered in groups. The correlation between the two tests was studied using a simple regression model. The comparison of mean scores of girls and boys was evaluated employing an independent t-test.

Results: A correlation coefficient of 0.82 was obtained between phonological awareness and spelling proficiency (p<0.001). Phonological skill sub-tests also showed a significant correlation with spelling proficiency (highest for phoneme awareness r=0.34 and lowest for rhyme awareness r=0.12). The mean scores of girls and boys differed significantly (p<0.05).

Conclusion: There is a strong positive association between phonological awareness and spelling proficiency. Therefore, if phonological skill is improved, spelling score can be enhanced.

Background and Aim: Students with hearing impairment show delayed development of theory of mind (ToM) compared with normal children. One factor impacting development of theory of mind is parent-child interaction. The present study investigated the relationship between maternal emotional intelligence and theory of mind in students with hearing impairment.

Methods: The present study employed correlational research. 40 students with profound hearing impairment (age range: 8-14 years) and their mothers were selected to participate. Measurement instruments included the false belief task and emotional intelligence questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by mothers. Correlational analysis and multiple regression methods were used for data analysis.

Results: Results indicated no significant correlation between the total score on false belief task and the emotional intelligence score and its components (p>0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that maternal emotional intelligence and its components cannot predict student's scores in false belief tasks (p>0.01).

Conclusion: The results show that there is no significant correlation between maternal emotional intelligence and theory of mind in students with hearing impairment. Therefore, maternal emotional intelligence cannot predict the development of theory of mind in students with hearing impairment.

Background and Aim: The hearing defects in deaf and hearing-impaired students also affect their cognitive skills such as memory in addition to communication skills. Hence, the aim of this study was to compare visual working memory in deaf and hearing-impaired students with that in normal counterparts.

Method: In the present study, which was a causal-comparative study using the André Rey test, 30 deaf and 30 hearing-impaired students were compared with 30 students in a normal group, and they were matched based on gender, intelligence, educational grade, and socioeconomic status.

Findings: Findings show that there is significant difference between the three groups’ subjects (p<0.05). The average of the normal group was more than that of the other two groups. However, the difference between the two auditory impaired groups was not significant (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Function of deaf or hard-of-hearing students in the visual working memory task was weaker in comparison with the normal counterparts, while the two deaf and hard-of-hearing groups have similar functions. With a better identification and understanding of the factors that affect the development of this cognitive ability, we can offer new methods of teaching and reduce many of the disadvantages of this group of people in the different fields of cognitive science.