Experiences of Participation of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Regular Schools – A Study with a German Version of the Classroom Participation Questionnaire (CPQ-D)

To know about participation of deaf and hard of hearing students who are educated in general classrooms, will become increasingly important, because in future more and more students will go to general schools. As is known extensive educational and social participation is an essential precondition for success at school. To this a German version of the CPQ (Classroom Participation Questionnaire) was tested with 213 deaf and hard of hearing integrated students, after a pilot study previously already had provided encouraging results. The study shows data in terms of the questionnaire’s reliability and construct validity. It also demonstrates relationships with sociodemographic variables, competences of the students (communicative competence, IQ, school performances), and quality of life of the group. Comparing the outcomes with the results of an available US study and the German pilot study it becomes clear, that the German version of the CPQ brings out an economic, practicable and reliable instrument for measuring important aspects of participation at school.