103 A COMPARISON OF ATTENTIONAL BEHAVIOR IN DEAF CHILDREN WITH DEAF AND HEARING MOTHERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Margaret Harris Department of Psychology Royal Holloway University of London Egham Surrey TWZO OEX United Kingdom Eleven 18-month-old children with profound pre-lingual hearing loss were video- recorded in a free play session with their mothers. Five of the mothers were profoundly deaf and fluent users of BSL or Auslan. The other six were hearing and had enrolled in a signing programme. Ten minute segments from each session were analyzed to determine the number of switches in attention shown by each child. Switches in attention were sub-divided into three categories: spontaneous (where the child spontaneously looked to the mother); responsive (where the child responded to some maternal action such as moving an object); and elicited (where the mother made a direct attempt to gain the child’s attention). Failed attempts to gain attention were also noted. A comparison of deaf and hearing mothers revealed no difference in the proportion of spontaneous or responsive switches in attention shown by their children with responsive switches being by far the most frequent category for both groups. However, responsive switching provided little opportunity for mothers to sign since the child’s attention was most commonly directed to an object. The children were more likely to see their mother signing when switches in attention were either spontaneous or elicited. Deaf mothers were generally more insistent on their children turning to look at them and they were both more successful in eliciting attentional switches and they had a greater number of failed attempts. These overall differences between the two groups were over-shadowed by large individual differences. Within the sample there were both deaf and hearing mothers who achieved successful signed communication with their children. The significance of these differences for the development of successful linguistic and non-linguistic communication between deaf infants and their mothers will be discussed.

A comparison of attentional behavior in deaf children with deaf and hearing mothers: Implications for early language development

Download PDF Report

Upload
margaret-harris
View
220
Download
2

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

103

A COMPARISON OF ATTENTIONAL BEHAVIOR IN DEAF CHILDREN WITH DEAF AND HEARING MOTHERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Margaret Harris Department of Psychology

Royal Holloway University of London Egham

Surrey TWZO OEX United Kingdom

Eleven 18-month-old children with profound pre-lingual hearing loss were video- recorded in a free play session with their mothers. Five of the mothers were profoundly deaf and fluent users of BSL or Auslan. The other six were hearing and had enrolled in a signing programme. Ten minute segments from each session were analyzed to determine the number of switches in attention shown by each child. Switches in attention were sub-divided into three categories: spontaneous (where the child spontaneously looked to the mother); responsive (where the child responded to some maternal action such as moving an object); and elicited (where the mother made a direct attempt to gain the child’s attention). Failed attempts to gain attention were also noted.

A comparison of deaf and hearing mothers revealed no difference in the proportion of spontaneous or responsive switches in attention shown by their children with responsive switches being by far the most frequent category for both groups. However, responsive switching provided little opportunity for mothers to sign since the child’s attention was most commonly directed to an object. The children were more likely to see their mother signing when switches in attention were either spontaneous or elicited. Deaf mothers were generally more insistent on their children turning to look at them and they were both more successful in eliciting attentional switches and they had a greater number of failed attempts. These overall differences between the two groups were over-shadowed by large individual differences. Within the sample there were both deaf and hearing mothers who achieved successful signed communication with their children. The significance of these differences for the development of successful linguistic and non-linguistic communication between deaf infants and their mothers will be discussed.