Content area
Full Text
Purpose: This study examined the gesture use of 14-month-old toddlers with hearing loss (HL) and mothers' responses to children's early gesture use. Comparisons were made to symbolic language and to dyads in which the toddler had normal hearing (NH).
Method: Participants were 25 mother-toddler dyads in which the child had HL and a socioeconomic-status matched group of 23 mother-toddler dyads in which the child had NH. Thirty-minute mother-child interactions were video-recorded, transcribed for spoken language, sign, and gesture use, and coded for maternal responses to children's gestures. Mothers also reported on children's gestural and spoken language abilities.
Results: Toddlers with HL used gesture similarly to their peers with NH, but demonstrated delays in spoken language. Spoken language and gesture were not significantly related for either group. Hearing levels were related to spoken language, but not gesture for the HL group. Maternal and child gesture were only related for signing mothers. Mothers of children with HL were more likely than their counterparts to provide no response to children's gestures.
Conclusion: Although toddlers' gesture abilities remain intact in the presence of HL, mothers were not maximally responsive to those gestures and thus should be coached to increase their provision of contingent feedback.
Over the past decade, the implementation of universal newborn hearing screening programs has resulted in children with hearing loss (HL) being identified and enrolled in early intervention (EI) at increasingly younger ages (Halpin, Smith, Widen, & Chertoff, 2010; Sininger, Grimes, & Christensen, 2010). To support these children in developing age-appropriate language skills, a better understanding of their communication skills during the first 2 years of life is necessary. Relying on past literature on communication development for this population is not feasible, as the advantages of early identification and intervention, coupled with recent advances in hearing assistive technologies (i.e., cochlear implants [CIs], hearing aids, and FM systems), has resulted in today's generation of deaf and hard of hearing children differing substantially from previous generations of children with HL. This article explores the early communication abilities of 14-month-old toddlers with HL, with a focus on gestural development, which is one of the earliest forms of intentional communication. This work also explores how mothers of toddlers with HL respond to their children's communicative gestures and includes comparisons...