How do deaf and hearing mothers regain eye contact when their infants look away?

The socialization of modality capital in sign language ecologies: A classroom example

Gaze behavior is an important component of children’s language, cognitive, and sociocultural development. This is especially true for young deaf children acquiring a signed language—if they are not looking at the language model, they are not getting linguistic input. Deaf caregivers engage their deaf infants and toddlers using visual and tactile strategies to draw in, support, and promote their child’s visual attention; we argue that these caregiver actions create a developmental niche that establishes the visual modality capital their child needs for successful sign language learning. But most deaf children do not have deaf signing parents (reportedly over 90%) and they will need to rely on adult signing teachers if they are to acquire a signed language at an early age. This study examines classroom interactions between a Deaf teacher, her teacher’s aide, and six deaf preschoolers to document the teachers’ “everyday practices” as they socialize the gaze behavior of these children. Utilizing a detailed behavioral and linguistic analysis of two video-recorded book-sharing contexts, we present data summarizing the teacher’s attention-getting actions directed toward the children and the discourse-embedded cues that signal the teacher’s expectations for student participation in the signed conversation. We observed that the teacher’s behaviors differed according to the parent status of the deaf preschooler (Deaf parents vs. hearing parents) suggesting that Deaf children of Deaf parents arrive to the preschool classroom with well-developed self-regulation of their attention or gaze. The teachers also used more physical and explicit cueing with the deaf children of hearing parents—possibly to promote their ability to leverage the visual modality for sign language acquisition. We situate these socialization patterns within a framework that integrates notions of intuitive or indigenous practices, developmental niche, and modality capital. Implications for early childhood deaf education are also discussed.

The effect of hearing loss on the use of lexical categories by Hebrew-speaking mothers of deaf children with cochlear implants

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The frequency of use of nouns versus verbs in child-directed speech (CDS) of mothers to their normal hearing (NH) children has been investigated in various languages. Recent studies have shown that CDS to deaf children is affected by hearing loss. Thus, the main aim of the present study was to examine the effect of hearing loss on the use of content words by NH Hebrew-speaking mothers to their deaf children using CIs. The second aim was to compare the use of content words by mothers speaking to CI children to that of NH children of the same chronological age and NH children with the same hearing experience.

METHOD

Three groups of mother-child dyads participated: Ten mothers of deaf children with bilateral CIs (CIs) (age range 20-48 months), ten mothers of NH children matched to the deaf children by their chronological age (NCA), and ten mothers of NH children matched to the deaf children by their hearing experience (NHE). Data were collected from mother-child dyads performing natural activities. Two hundred utterances were transcribed and analyzed both quantitatively (tokens) and qualitatively (types) according to the use of lexical categories (noun, verb, adjective, and adverb).

RESULTS

The frequency of verbs and nouns, both types and tokens, was significantly higher than the frequency of adverbs and adjectives in the CDS of mothers to their children both with CIs and NH. No significant differences were found between the use of verb and noun tokens by mothers of children with NH in both groups. However, in the speech of mothers to the CI group, the use of verb tokens was significantly higher than the use of noun tokens, and the verb to noun ratio of tokens was significantly higher than that of the NHE group, and demonstrated a trend with the NCA group.

CONCLUSION

The fact that mothers of CI children use more verb than noun tokens strengthens the claim that they adopt a more directive style and controlling behaviors while interacting with their CI children. Also, it seems that mothers speaking to CI children are more sensitive to the children's linguistic needs according to the hearing experience and linguistic stage rather than the chronological age. The clinical implications are discussed.

Joint Attention in Hearing Parent-Deaf Child and Hearing Parent-Hearing Child Dyads

Here we characterize establishment of joint attention in hearing parent-deaf child dyads and hearing parent-hearing child dyads. Deaf children were candidates for cochlear implantation who had not yet been implanted and who had no exposure to formal manual communication (e.g., American Sign Language). Because many parents whose deaf children go through early cochlear implant surgery do not themselves know a visual language, these dyads do not share a formal communication system based in a common sensory modality prior to the child's implantation. Joint attention episodes were identified during free play between hearing parents and their hearing children (N = 4) and hearing parents and their deaf children (N = 4). Attentional episode types included successful parent-initiated joint attention, unsuccessful parent-initiated joint attention, passive attention, successful child-initiated joint attention, and unsuccessful child-initiated joint attention. Group differences emerged in both successful and unsuccessful parent-initiated attempts at joint attention, parent passive attention, and successful child-initiated attempts at joint attention based on proportion of time spent in each. These findings highlight joint attention as an indicator of early communicative efficacy in parent-child interaction for different child populations. We discuss the active role parents and children play in communication, regardless of their hearing status.

Modality use in joint attention between hearing parents and deaf children

The present study examined differences in modality use during episodes of joint attention between hearing parent-hearing child dyads and hearing parent-deaf child dyads. Hearing children were age-matched to deaf children. Dyads were video recorded in a free play session with analyses focused on uni- and multimodality use during joint attention episodes. Results revealed that adults in hearing parent-deaf child dyads spent a significantly greater proportion of time interacting with their children using multiple communicative modalities than adults in hearing parent-hearing child dyads, who tended to use the auditory modality (e.g., oral language) most often. While these findings demonstrate that hearing parents accommodate their children's hearing status, we observed greater overall time spent in joint attention in hearing parent-hearing child dyads than hearing parent-deaf child dyads. Our results point to important avenues for future research on how parents can better accommodate their child's hearing status through the use of multimodal communication strategies.

Attention-getting skills of deaf children using American Sign Language in a preschool classroom

Visual attention is a necessary prerequisite to successful communication in sign language. The current study investigated the development of attention-getting skills in deaf native-signing children during interactions with peers and teachers. Seven deaf children (aged 21-39 months) and five adults were videotaped during classroom activities for approximately 30 hr. Interactions were analyzed in depth to determine how children obtained and maintained attention. Contrary to previous reports, children were found to possess a high level of communicative competence from an early age. Analysis of peer interactions revealed that children used a range of behaviors to obtain attention with peers, including taps, waves, objects, and signs. Initiations were successful approximately 65% of the time. Children followed up failed initiation attempts by repeating the initiation, using a new initiation, or terminating the interaction. Older children engaged in longer and more complex interactions than younger children. Children's early exposure to and proficiency in American Sign Language is proposed as a likely mechanism that facilitated their communicative competence.

Attention interchanges at story-time: a case study from a deaf and hearing twin pair acquiring Swedish sign language in their deaf family

This case study longitudinally analyzes and describes the changes of attentional expressions in interchanges between a pair of fraternal twins, 1 deaf and 1 hearing, from the age of 10-40 months, and their Deaf family members. The video-observed attentional expressions of initiating and reestablishing interchange were grouped in 5 functional categories: "getting," "directing," "maintaining," "redirecting," and "checking" attention. Changes appear to be associated with development during the twins' ages of 10-13, 15-24, and 28-40 months, including the use of vision in communication. Although there are similarities in the changes of each twin's communicative initiations, there are also differences based on hearing status, personality, and use of modality. This is evident in the ways in which each twin's individual attention interchanges unfold over time; it is also connected with the parents' negotiating attention and arranging "seating positions" with them. Implications and findings for special educational purposes are discussed.

Analogous and distinctive patterns of prelinguistic communication in toddlers with and without hearing loss

PURPOSE

This study was conducted to compare the prelinguistic communicative abilities of toddlers with hearing loss and without hearing loss during the 2nd year of life and shortly before the emergence of productive single-word lexicons.

METHOD

The participants were 28 toddlers with hearing loss who participated in an early intervention program and 92 toddlers with normal hearing at similar language levels and close chronological ages. The assessment consisted of the Hebrew Parent Questionnaire-Communication and Early Language (HPQ-CEL; E. Dromi, H. Ben-Shahar-Treitel, E. Guralnik, & D. Ringwald-Frimerman, 1992) that guided parents' observations of their toddlers in 6 contexts at home. Parents reported on a range of prelinguistic communicative abilities.

RESULTS

Profile analysis indicated that the 2 groups used a remarkably similar overall profile of prelinguistic behaviors. Interrelationships among behaviors were noticeably similar, too. Two communication properties unique to toddlers with hearing loss were relatively lower spontaneous use of words and reduced involvement in triadic book reading interactions. In addition, the associations between use of words and gestures in toddlers with hearing loss were slightly different from the toddlers with normal hearing, and the range of innovative gestures that they produced was greater.

CONCLUSION

The remarkable similarity between the 2 groups support the feasibility of adopting goals and principles known to hold true in typical development for fostering communication in toddlers with hearing loss.