聾学校児の難聴実態調査—川崎市立聾学校の場合

The Characteristics of Students at Schools for the Deaf

　はじめに

　難聴幼児の早期発見，早期教育の重要性が提唱され，わが国においては全国的に難聴の発見，難聴教育の整備が進められている^1,2,3）。その結果，中等度から高度難聴児が初等教育を普通学校で受ける例が多くなっており，聾学校の生徒数は減少傾向にある。こうした難聴児をとりまく社会背景の変化のなかで，現在聾学校に在籍している生徒の難聴の発見に至る過程や難聴の程度を調べることは，耳鼻科医が関わるべきテーマとして興味深いことと思われる。

　今回調査を行った川崎市立聾学校は，人口118万人の川崎市にある唯一の聾学校であり，本校は川崎市およびその周辺の地域の聾教育の中心的役割を果たしている。また，幼稚部から高等部まで一貫した教育体制が整っていることが本校の大きな特徴である。

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of pupils at a school for the deaf. The subjects were 141 children ranging in age from 3 to 17 years who were registered at the Kawasaki Municipal School for the Deaf between 1981 and 1990.

The results were as follows, The mean age at which hearing loss had been found was 1 year 8 months, and hearing loss was often found by families, especially by mothers. The hearing loss had been most often detected because of lack of reaction to sounds. Mean age at referral to the school was 4 years 2 months, most referring persons were ENT physicians at university or general hospitals. Hearing loss of pupils in high school were not so severe than that of kinder-garten and elementary school, hearing level were getting worse after entrance.