The Comparison of Executive Functions in Students with Hearing Impairment and Students with Normal Hearing

Executive functions have important role in development of language, behavior control, and adaptive skills, social and academic skills. Considering the importance of executive functions, the goal of this study was to compare the executive functions in students with hearing impairment and those of normal hearing. This study adopted a causal-comparative design. 22 students with profound hearing impairment and 22 students with normal hearing participated in the study. Instruments of research included Wisconsin Sort Card Test (WSCT) and Tower of London (TOL). Independent t test was used to analyze the obtained data. Analysis of data showed that there was no significant difference between two groups in their scores of WSCT and TOL (p>0/05).It can be concluded that executive functions of student with hearing impairment including mental flexibility and planning/problem solving are weaker than those with normal hearing, but there is not statistical significant difference between the two groups