ABSTRACT

This study mv estimated the attitudes of regular learners towards integration of the hearing impaired learners in regular schools in Starehe Division, Nairobi. The study wa~ based on the three schools in Starehe Division that have units for deaf children. The subjects )f the study were all learners from class five to class eight in the three schools named / Racecourse, Juja Road, and Pangani Primary schools. These three schools represented the twenty-five schools in Starehe Division. The researchers devised questionnaires that contained the profile of the respondents with respect to ch ss, gender, and ag~, the learners’ knowledge and understanding about integration, opinions towards learning of hearing-impaired children, and ways for a positive attitude towards the integration of the deaf. The questionnaires were pretested by fellow teachers. The questionnaires were given out to the sampled learners and filled together, a question at a time with the researchers’ guidance. After collecting all the questionnaires, data presentation analysis and discussion are done. The researcher has commented own findings and views of the outcome of every question. This study shows that learners in the whole Starehe Division exhibit positive attitudes toward the deaf learners but they lack knowledge of how to socialize, communicate or help them. Most learners are positive about the integration of deaf learners into regular schools; so a lot of sensitizing needs to be done and also programs s for teaching sign language should be organized.