Listeners' impressions of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children

This study investigated the relationship between speech of hearing-impaired children and listeners' ratings of the speakers' intelligence, achievement, personality, and appearance as a function of whether or not speakers wore hearing aids. Stimuli consisted of (1) tape-recorded speech samples of 12 speakers (4 normal hearing, 4 hard of hearing, and 4 deaf) and (2) two photographic slides of each speaker--one depicting him wearing a hearing aid and another depicting him not wearing a hearing aid. Listeners used a semantic differential scale to rate the stimuli. Analysis shows that there is a systematic increase in "less desirable" ratings with severity of hearing loss and that responses are more negative when the speaker wore a hearing aid.