Abstract
This study investigated the expression of communicative intentions by 3-year-old hearing-impaired children who were learning a system for manually coded English. Children were videotaped in their homes, interacting with their mothers. Children's communicative expressions were identified and coded according to a system modified from those developed to describe hearing children's pragmatic functioning. Between 4.5 and 5.5 communicative expressions were produced per minute. A large proportion of the expressions consisted of social or imperative intentions while a much smaller proportion were used for heuristic or informational purposes. Implications for the deaf children's future language use and development are discussed. The data presented provide some guidelines for pragmatic expectations for young deaf children and may help clinicians to identify deaf children who have developmental problems in addition to their hearing loss.
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