Parental strategies used in communication with their deaf infants

Abstract

One way of increasing caregivers’ language accessibility when interacting with a deaf child is through visual communication strategies. By using both a longitudinal and cross-sectional approach, this study will reveal which strategies deaf and hearing parents prefer and implement in their daily communication with their deaf children. First, the interactions of one deaf and two hearing mothers with their deaf children were recorded over the course of 18 months starting when their children were 6 months of age. Second, interactions of 5 mothers and 5 fathers (i.e. each two deaf and three hearing) with their deaf children (24 months old) were analysed for implicit and explicit strategy-use. It indicated gender related differences and confirmed caregivers’ tendencies to rely on strategies closely related to the modality of their mother tongue. Finally, deaf parents outperformed the hearing parents in the duration of successful interaction moments with their deaf children.