The School Playground as a Meeting Place for Hard of Hearing Children

The school playground is the main social arena for children attending classes for hard of hearing pupils, where they can meet and mix with other children. Their social interplay with other children is rather restricted during their spare time. For the hard of hearing children in this study, their school environment has shifted from one dominated by spoken language (at a mainstream compulsory school) to one dominated by the use of sign language (at a special school). Video-camera observations of the children playing during school breaks showed that, at the mainstream school, the hearing and hard of hearing children used the school playground in an unequal way. The hard of hearing children played at the periphery of the playground and the hearing children in the central interaction areas. In the special school the hard of hearing children played in the central interaction areas and often with deaf schoolmates. Thus, in the integrated environment the hard of hearing children were socially excluded and in the segregated environment they were socially included.