Maternal Sensitivity and the Visual Attentiveness of Children Who Are Deaf

Abstract

Maternal sensitivity may be even more important for the development of deaf infants' social and cognitive competence than previous research has shown it to be for hearing children. We report ratings of mothers' sensitivity and infants' time in coordinated joint attention (CJA) during play interactions videotaped in a laboratory at 9,12 and 18 months. Participants include 80 dyads in four groups: two matched for hearing status (Deaf or Hearing mothers with deaf or hearing babies), two unmatched for hearing status (Deaf mothershearing babies and Hearing motherddeaf babies). Mothers in matched dyads were rated more sensitive than mothets in unmatched dyads. Deaf infants with Deaf mothers showed more time in CJA compared to infants in unmatched dyads. However, significant correlations of sensitivity and attention were found only for the two unmatched hearing status groups at 18 months. These results are discussed in terms of dyadic hearing status differences, intuitive parenting and developmental stage. 019% by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Early Dev. Parent. 5: 213-223, 1996 Key words: sensitivity; attention; deafness; hearing impairment In our culture, it is theoretically assumed that 'sensitive' parents attend to both the social and the cognitive needs of their children; that they provide meaning as well as enjoyment, in environments

Early conversational environment enables spontaneous belief attribution in deaf children

“…Thus, the case of environmental influences in ToM development in deaf children is of great theoretical interest since they offer an opportunity to disentangle some of the variables thought to be of importance in this respect (Corina & Singleton, 2009). Previous studies have investigated the ways in which children's ToM development is fostered by interaction with caregivers, and have shown that deaf children's early experiences of communicative interaction with their hearing parents are very different compared to hearing children (Harris & Chasin, 2005;Meadow-Orlans & Spencer, 1996;Moeller & Schick, 2006;Morgan et al, 2014;Vaccari & Marschark, 1997). Onishi and Baillargeon (2005) designed a non-verbal looking time task to examine typically developing hearing infants' abilities to attribute a false belief to another person.…”

“…Hearing mothers of deaf infants and toddlers tend to use less cognitive mental state language and their conversations are characterized by less communicatively effective turn-taking (Morgan et al, 2014). Moreover, hearing parents seem to spend less time in coordinated joint attention with their deaf children than with their hearing children (Harris & Chasin, 2005) and tend to interrupt the child's attention by initiating new unrelated activities (Meadow-Orlans & Spencer, 1996). A key issue from this perspective is whether such mismatching in early interaction between deaf infants and their hearing caregivers is reflected in differences in mentalizing abilities.…”

Analogous and Distinctive Patterns of Prelinguistic Communication in Toddlers With and Without Hearing Loss

“…For example, in a longitudinal study, MeadowOrlans and Spencer (1996) measured instances of coordinated joint attention in infants and their mothers during free play. The infants comprised four groups: (a) hearing mothers and hearing babies, (b) hearing mothers and babies who were deaf, (c) mothers who were deaf and babies who were deaf, and (d) mothers who were deaf and babies who were hearing.…”

The Impact of Cochlear Implants on Young Deaf Children

“…20,21 All of the available evidence indicates that normal development requires some level of effective communication between parent and child, and since the vast majority of deaf children are born to hearing parents, this "mismatch" between the hearing status of the child and parents may present a significant barrier to both communication and development of the parent-child relationship. 22,23 A variety of observational studies have found that hearing mothers of young deaf children tend to engage in more controlling, directive, and intrusive interactions with their children and are less likely to respond contingently to their behavior. [24][25][26][27][28] These differences in maternal sensitivity are likely the result of difficulties in communication within the dyad and the challenges of meeting the deaf child's needs.…”