A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT AND WITH NORMAL HEARING

Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of social intelligence in hearing-impaired and normally hearing students in an inclusive primary school. The aim of the study was to determine the overall level of social intelligence in the two groups and how it differs across the components of empathy, social understanding, and situational analysis, and to interpret the findings in the context of collaborative educational activities, including physical education lessons. The study was conducted using a comparative-descriptive design. The number of participants was 68 students: 32 with impaired hearing and 36 with normal hearing, aged 8-10 years. Students completed a scale of understanding social situations and interpreting emotions, adapted for primary school age. Data were processed in SPSS 26.0 using descriptive statistics and the Student's t-test for independent samples. The results showed that normally hearing students demonstrated higher results on all components of social intelligence (p < 0.05), with particularly pronounced differences in the level of social understanding and situational analysis. Furthermore, it was found that students with hearing impairments retain resource potential in the areas of empathy and visual-situational understanding. The study's results confirm the importance of an equal combination of linguistic and non-linguistic communication channels in inclusive classrooms. The recommendations provide teachers with specific methodological guidelines for planning social interactions. In conclusion, it should be noted that work on developing social intelligence should be based on supporting multimodal communication, systematically organizing collaborative activities with peers, and the widespread use of cooperative games in inclusive classrooms.