Abstract

Students with hearing impairment learn in classrooms built around sound, and the strain of that mismatch reaches into both their studies and their emotional lives. This study determined the academic and emotional counselling needs of secondary school students with hearing impairment in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, and examined whether these needs differed by gender. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The population comprised all 30 Senior Secondary School Two students of International Model School for the Deaf, Afikpo, the only government secondary school for the Deaf functioning at full capacity in the State; the entire population was studied without sampling. Data were collected with a researcher-developed, expert-validated questionnaire, the Hearing Impaired Students' Counselling Needs Questionnaire, comprising 36 items on a four-point scale, with an overall Cronbach's alpha reliability of 0.92. The instrument was administered in sign language, and 27 copies (90 per cent) were returned. Mean and standard deviation answered the research questions, while the independent samples t-test tested the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that students expressed academic counselling needs in 18 of 21 areas, led by reading comprehension of English texts, subject selection and tertiary planning, and emotional counselling needs in 13 of 15 areas, led by worry about the future, selfconfidence and acceptance of their hearing condition. No significant gender difference emerged in either domain, although female students recorded higher emotional need. Sign language competent counsellors, structured literacy and career guidance, and family communication support are recommended