A Study of Conservation Abilities Between Hearing-Impaired and Normal Hearing Students in Taiwan

Abstract

This study was designed to compare the conservation abilities between eighty hearing-impaired students and eighty hearing students ages 9 to 12 in Taiwan, the Republic of China. The hearing-impaired subjects were prelingually and profoundly deaf without any other significant handicaps. They had hearing parents. The conservation tasks involved number, liquid, weight, and volume. A significant difference in conservation ability was found between hearing-impaired and hearing students at all age levels, in support of hearing students. Within the hearing-impaired group, there was no significant difference in conservation ability between any two age levels. Therefore, for hearing-impaired students, age is not a function of conservation ability during the years of 9 to 12. But within the hearing groups, it was found that 12-year-old students performed significantly better when compared to other age groups.