Peer interaction in young deaf children: The effect of partner hearing status and familiarity.

Abstract

The present study had two major objectives: (a) to explore the role of language in peer interaction and play of deaf children and (b) to examine the effect of three partner characteristics (hearing status, familiarity, and experience) on dyadic interaction of deaf children. Fourteen deaf 5- to 6-year-olds were videotaped playing once with each of four partners: a familiar deaf playmate, a familiar hearing playmate, an unfamiliar hearing child who was a playmate of another deaf child, and an unfamiliar hearing child who had little experience playing with deaf children. Formal language did not seem to play a major role in the deaf children's peer interaction: they rarely used language, and formal language use was not related to measures of interaction or play even when playing with another deaf child. Instead, interaction and pretense seemed to be related to the deaf children's nonlinguistic communication abilities. Two partner characteristics affected interaction. Partner hearing status primarily affected communication, with communication between deaf playmates more visual (both linguistic and nonlinguistic) and less object-based than communication between deaf and hearing playmates. Comparisons among the deaf-hearing dyads indicated that familiarity played a larger role than experience in improving interaction between deaf and hearing children. The hearing children were more responsive to and used more visual communication devices with their deaf playmate than an unfamiliar deaf child. But the hearing playmates were no better at playing with an unfamiliar deaf child than were hearing children who had little experience playing with deaf children. Implications for our understanding of young children's communication abilities and for deaf educational programs are discussed. Recent research suggests that communication between peers plays an important role in the dynamics of peer interaction and play. Contrary to Piaget's hypotheses concerning the monologue nature of children's peer-directed speech, the majority of young children's speech to their peers has been found to be socially directed and response appropriate (Garvey & Hogan, 1973; Mueller, 1972). In addition, Garvey and Berndt (1977) has shown that the framing and setting up of pretend play of preschool children depends largely on linguistic exchanges. Therefore, it is not surprising that past research indicates that deaf children whose language skills are delayed have more difficulty engaging in prolonged peer interaction than do