Self-concept and stress tolerance among hearing impaired high school students

To be born without one of the primary senses, i.e. hearing through which a person mediates between the inner needs and the external environment, affects and restricts his whole development as a person and necessitates the acquisition of quite different modes of adjustment from those of a normal person. A student who is deaf of hard of hearing may have difficulty in communicating with peers, developing relationships and friendships and participating in the social inter course, which is so critical to emotional development. Hearing impairment, therefore, should be viewed not only from the larger perspective of their effects on the child’s overall adjustment. This study focuses on self concept and stress tolerance of hearing impaired students and tries to find the relation. We develop and maintain our self-concept through the process of taking action and then reflecting on what we have done and what others tell us about what we have done. Stress tolerance is the ability to handle emotionally charged situations and to resist burn out demanding environment. Hearing disability impairs not only hearing function but also intellectual, behavioral social and emotional functions, thus effect of handicap penetrates all aspects of the individual growth and development. The education should emphasize the child rather than his handicap and to understand that there is no two worlds, a deaf world and a hearing world but one world in which deaf and hearing people exist and interact on a daily basis.