Intellectual efficiency of children with unilateral hearing loss

SummaryObjectiveThe aim of our study was to observe the consequences of unilateral hearing loss with regard to intellectual functioning and development of children.MethodsThe studies were conducted on the group of 64 children (42 boys and 22 girls) aged 6–16 years with left- or right-sided hearing loss using D. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).ResultsChildren with right-sided hearing loss had a limited range of concepts, lower capability of learning verbal material and logical reasoning, abstract thinking and classifying. Left-sided hearing loss caused deterioration of intellectual abilities within non-verbal intelligence. Such a children had poorer abilities for analyzing, synthesizing and visual memory, worse spatial imagination and visual coordination.ConclusionsThe examined children with unilateral hearing loss achieved the intelligence quotient on the average level in D. Wechsler Intelligence Scale. The side of hearing loss has a significant influence on the development of individual intellectual functions.