Development of a Functional Social Assessment Tool for Arabic-Speaking Egyptian Deaf Children

ABSTRACT Background: Deafness is the most common sensory impairment in human beings, with significant social and psychological implications. Several questionnaires were designed to evaluate the social and emotional abilities of English-speaking deaf children. This study's objective was to create Arabic questionnaires to assess the social abilities of Arabic-speaking Egyptian deaf children. Methods: Two Arabic questionnaires targeting social abilities were designed by selecting items from two English-based questionnaires and translating them into Arabic. The questionnaires were administered to 140 Egyptian children aged 3–12 years who were arranged into two age groups. They included 60 children with typical hearing, 60 deaf children fitted with hearing aids, and 20 children with cochlear implants. Results: Children with typical hearing showed the best performance with non-significant differences between cochlear implanted and hearing aided children. The best predictors of the social abilities of Egyptian deaf children were language age and severity of hearing loss. Conclusion: The designed Arabic questionnaires are valid and reliable functional assessment tools that can be used to evaluate and monitor the social performance of deaf children.