The Pragmatic Skills of Profoundly Deaf Children

Abstract

This study investigated the ability of normally hearing students and two groups of profoundly deaf students, one using oral and one using signed communication, to employ a series of pragmatic skills required for effective face-to-face interaction. Specifically considered were the ability of listeners to request clarification, the ability of speakers to respond to requests, and the strategies speakers use at times of communication breakdown. Differences were found between the two groups suggesting that the profoundly deaf students had difficulty consistently using appropriate, productive pragmatic behaviors in their face-to-face dyadic interactions.

The oral referential communication skills of hearing-impaired children

“…It therefore appears that a failure to take the listener's need into account is a problem that is experienced by some HI children, and may be more likely to occur as level of hearing loss increases (Elfenbein et al, 1994). The ability to take a listener's needs into account develops throughout the school years (Jeanes et al, 2000). Whether some HI children's inability to take the listener's needs into account is due to a developmental lag in referential communication skills or some other explanation cannot be determined from these results, but it should be remembered that the HI group did display a developmental trend in speaking skills.…”

Developing communication skills in deaf primary school pupils: Introducing and evaluating the smiLE approach

“…Owens (1996) showed that hearing children acquire these skills within the first 8 years of life through conversational interactions. However, for profoundly deaf children, learning the rules of social communication is more challenging (Crocker & Edwards, 2004) and many have difficulties in acquiring pragmatic skills necessary for communicating with hearing people, particularly when using the spoken modality (Bench, 1992;Jeanes, Nienhuys & Rickards, 2000).…”

“…Reduced quality and quantity of interactions means fewer opportunities for these behaviours to be modelled and fewer opportunities for the deaf child to apply the behaviours in natural settings (Brackett, 1983;Carney & Moeller, 1998;Jeanes et al, 2000).…”

Linguistic and extralinguistic communication in deaf children

“…Furthermore, Jeanes et al (2000) investigated the ability of two groups of profoundly deaf students born to hearing parents, one group using oral and the other using signed communication, to employ a series of pragmatic skills required for effective face-to-face interaction; for example, the ability of listeners to request clarification, the ability of speakers to respond to requests, and the strategies speakers use at times of communication breakdown. They found that profoundly deaf students had difficulty consistently using appropriate, productive pragmatic behaviors in their face-to-face dyadic interactions.…”

“…Second, some studies evaluate deaf children's pragmatic abilities from the point of view of individuals who speak a verbal language. In particular, such studies focus on the quantity of specific and non-specific requests for clarifications made by hearing and deaf children (see Jeanes et al, 2000). They do not analyze the appropriateness of the responses in terms of their effectiveness.…”