Who Are the Deaf Children in “Mainstream” Programs?
The paper examines the extent of integrated placement (Mainstreaming) of hearing impaired children in the United States and describes a variety of educationally salient characteristics of these students. As compared with hearing impaired children in other types of educational programs, students in integrated programs are reported to have significantly less severe hearing loss, higher family incomes, and other distinctive characteristics. It is noted that programs are presently serving a group of hearing impaired children who are very different on many educationally critical dimensions from those children who attend other types of special education programs.
