A Survey Of Educational And Counselling Needs Of Deaf Students
[A CASE STUDY OF KWARA STATE SCHOOL FOR THE HANDICAPPED, ILORIN]

    Deaf people are faced with many problems within the family, peer group at school or in the society. According to Babatunde (2001), such problems may include the following: 
1.    Stigmatization and discrimination among peers and people in the society.
2.    Inability to relate well with normal hearing people.
3.    Difficulty in understanding message passed across in the classroom.
4.    Isolation form other people.
5.    The deafs reflect high degree of emotional imbalance.
6.    He or she is easily irritable and impulsive.
7.    He or she learns slowly which may draw others back.
8.    Some eventually return to street begging where there is no help.
Apart from the above, Adana (1999) says that there could be rejection of the child by one or both parents which could spell a more catastrophic doom for the child.
According to Duntoye (2005), public attitude towards the handicapped people is also a problem, attitudes could be defined as verbal or non-verbal. And it is also a type of communication in which a person expresses either acceptance or rejection of a thing.
So, consciously or unconsciously, the individual as a person and then the public at large, do express some kinds of attitudes to the handicapped and the less priviledged members in the society.
Falodun and Osatunyi (1995) made analytical exposition of an attitude, they opined that attitude is an organized predisposition to think, feel, perceive, and behave toward a refrent cognitive object. According to them, attitude is an enduring structure of beliefs that predisposes the individual to behave selectively towards a referent.
Ozoji (1996) listed some negative attitudes expressed to the disabled which are considered as threatening to the retention of special education in Nigeria, these are: -
(1)    Intellectual disregard of the disabled in which case, the intellectual capacity of the disabled are seriously over looked, it could also be called mental devaluation of the disabled.
(2)    Rejection or discriminating behaviours towards the disabled. This is the tendency to exhibit dislike, hard feelings or other rejection to the disabled, either in the job, home, school, social settings and the society at large.
(3)    Prejudiced beliefs: this is associating causes of impairement with sin or taboos against the community.
(4)    Over-permissiveness: This is on the part of parents, teachers, whereby they permit indiscipline on the disabled because of their disabilities.
Prevention of Hearing Impairment
    According to Yahaya (2002), the following have to be done to prevent hearing impairment problems: -
-    There should be early diagnosis and treatment of known causes.
-    There should be enlightenment of the public on the causes, signs and effects of hearing problems.
-    Also, there should be avoidance of loud noise and accidents, pregnant mothers should eat adequate balanced diet, they should avoid abuse and misuse of drugs.
-    Lastly, cases of hearing problem should be reported to specialists immediately they are identified.
Management of Deaf Persons