Abstract
AbstractPurpose: The present study analyzed the social-cognitive and social-perceptual components of Theory of Mind (ToM) comparing three groups of deaf adults to three matched hearing groups. The influence of verbal IQ was also investigated. Methods: The participants were 15 native signers, 15 late signers, 17 oral deaf adults paired by gender, age and mental age to 47 hearing adults. All participants completed the assessment of the two components of ToM and of the verbal IQ. Results: Late signers and oral deaf adults showed lower scores then hearing peers both in the social-perceptual and social-cognitive components of ToM. Native signers showed lower scores then hearing peers in the social-perceptual component. Verbal IQ was the predictor of the social-cognitive component for late signers and oral deaf adults, while it was not significant for the social-perceptual component. Conclusions: The findings yielded support for the two components of TOM and contributed to the extent of the existing literature ...
Highlights
The results found in late signers and oral deaf children are related to their communicative ability and, in particular, on language complementation, general language ability including knowledge of vocabulary on mental states, (Remmel & Peters, 2009) and the conversational deprivation in the family context (Peterson & Siegal, 1999)
Social cognitive and perceptual component of Theory of Mind (ToM) in deaf and hearing participants All the data were subjected to t-test analysis to compare each group of deaf adults and its hearing paired group on the social-cognitive and perceptual component of ToM
The difficulties of late signers and oral deaf adults in the social-cognitive component were not linked to their deafness status, but to their verbal IQ
Summary
The authors are involved in several research activities within typical and atypical developmental conditions, such as deafness, autism, and learning disabilities. Dr Flavia Lecciso and Dr Serena Petrocchi’s research interests are focused on Theory of Mind in socio-cultural and affective-relational perspective in developmental ages and life-span approach. Dr Francesca Baruffaldi’s research interests are focused on clinical psychology and on linguistic and attention on deafness. She is an expert in using Italian Sign Language. Annalisa Levante’s research interests are mainly focused on Theory of Mind in Autism
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