Investigating the diagnosis, assessment and follow-up processes in guidance and research centers: The case of children with hearing loss

The purpose of the study is to determine the diagnosis, assessment and follow-up processes of children with hearing loss at Guidance and Research Centers (GRCs). Additionally, this study examines whether there are practice differences and possible reasons for these differences among two GRCs in Eskişehir. As a qualitative-descriptive research, this study makes use of semi-structured interviews which is one of the qualitative data collection techniques, with the aim of examining diagnosis, assessment and follow-up processes of children with hearing loss at GRCs in detail and to present the existing situation. The study was conducted in the central districts of Tepebaşı GRC and Odunpazarı İbrahim Kurşungöz GRC in Eskişehir. The participants of the study were 13 teachers in total, 7 of whom were from Tepebaşı CRC while 6 of whom were from Odunpazarı İbrahim Kurşungöz GRC. It is well known that for the proper functioning of special education services, GRC processes are of critical importance. It can be predicted that when children with hearing loss make use of these steps properly, the quality of education delivered to them would increase. Thus, this study examines the GRC processes, and determines the problems that can be seen during the process. Some of these problems include the lack of cooperation between hospitals and GRSs, the lack of assessment forms of children with hearing loss, lack of materials, absence of physical conditions suitable for assessment, running monitoring process together with yearly reports etc. Based on these examples, it is obviously necessary to resolve these problems. Keywords: Guidance and Research Center (GRC), Diagnosis, Assessment, Follow-up, Children with hearing loss.