Representational Abilities and the Hearing Status of Child/Mother Dyads

Abstract

Two representational abilities, expressive and receptive language and symbolic play, were assessed in multiple formats in hearing and deaf 2-year-old children of hearing and deaf mothers. Based on maternal report, hearing children of hearing and deaf mothers produced more words than deaf children of hearing mothers, hearing children of hearing mothers more words than deaf children of deaf mothers, and deaf children of deaf mothers more words than deaf children of hearing mothers. Based on experimenter assessments, hearing children in both groups produced and comprehended more words than deaf children in both groups. By contrast, no differences emerged among these groups in child solitary symbolic play or in child-initiated or mother-initiated child collaborative symbolic play; all groups also increased equivalently in symbolic play between solitary and collaborative play. Representational language and symbolic play were unrelated in hearing children of hearing mothers and in deaf children of deaf mothers, but the 2 abilities were associated in children in the 2 child/mother mismatched hearing status groups. These findings are placed in the context of a proposed developing modularity of verbal and nonverbal symbol systems, and the implications of hearing status in communicative exchanges between children and their mothers in diverse hearing and deaf dyads are explored.

Epilogue: Major Findings, Conclusions and Implications for Deaf Education

“…Similar gender effects have been documented for language measures of normal-hearing children (Bornstein & Painter, 1999;Fenson, Pethick, Renda, Cox, Dale, & Reznick, 2000) and for young deaf children who are learning oral language (Easterbrooks & O'Rourke, 2001). Similar gender effects have been documented for language measures of normal-hearing children (Bornstein & Painter, 1999;Fenson, Pethick, Renda, Cox, Dale, & Reznick, 2000) and for young deaf children who are learning oral language (Easterbrooks & O'Rourke, 2001).…”

Factors Associated with Development of Speech Production Skills in Children Implanted by Age Five

“…Gender differences in speech and language skills have been noted in many previous studies focusing on normal development or the performance of children with communication disorders. Normal-hearing girls score higher than boys on a variety of vocabulary and cognitive measures (Bornstein & Painter, 1999). Gender differences in communication profiles also are reported in older adults with hearing losses on the Communication Profile for Hearing Impairment (Garstecki & Erler, 1999).…”

Parenting Stress Among Parents of Deaf and Hearing Children: Associations with Language Delays and Behavior Problems

“…Normal hearing children with language delays face additional challenges because their language abilities do not keep pace with the increasing developmental demands of early childhood (Bornstein, Selmi, Haynes, Painter, & Marx, 1999; Irwin, Carter, & Briggs-Gowan, 2002). These challenges are magnified by the presence of childhood deafness.…”