Attitudes of children with cochlear implants or hearing aids to inclusive education in the Canary Islands

Abstract

Introduction: This study raised the following problem: How reliable and relevant is the Inclusion for Children and Adolescents Questionnaire (ICAQ) to measure the attitudes of children and adolescents with cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids (HAs) to inclusive education (IE) in public schools in the Canary Islands (i.e. provinces of Gran Canaria and Tenerife)?

Method: The sample consisted of 297 students from the province of Gran Canaria, and 137 students from the province of Tenerife with an average of 11 years old. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) determined the reliability and relevance of ICAQ.

Results: The authors found four factors of students’ attitudes towards IE: Family involvement and use of technology, Inclusion in the centre, Communication with medical specialists and Assessment of the support technology.

Conclusions: There were significant differences between the students with CIs and HAs in the following factors: Inclusion in the centre and Assessment of the support technology. The total score of students’ attitudes towards IE was high. The factor Inclusion in the centre had the most favourable total score of students’ original attitudes towards IE. Communication with medical specialists was the lowest total attitude score towards IE for students with CIs.