Background: Children with Down syndrome have speech and language difficulties that are disproportionate to their overall intellectual ability and relative strengths in the use of gesture. Shared book reading between parents and their children provides an effective context in which language development can be facilitated. However, children with…

Examination of the nature and quality of deaf children's referential messages to their mothers, the outcome of such messages, and the reformulations of "failed" messages. Deaf children 6-10 years old, from oral or bimodal educational programs, were tested in two tasks involving identification and description of a picture. (Author/BN)

Examines the differential mode usage (speech, vocalize, gesture and sign) of profoundly deaf preschoolers and their hearing mothers as a function of their level of communicative competence and method of communication. Relates simultaneous use of modes to higher communicative competence and specific pragmatic types of communication. (Author/MES)

A longitudinal study of the effect of mothers' communication modes on the language development of children (N=149) with severe or profound hearing loss indicated that children whose mothers used oral communication had higher scores on measures of spoken language, whereas children whose mothers used manual communication had higher scores on…

The onset and maintenance of visual attention to signing was observed in three profoundly deaf children (ages two and three) while interacting with their hearing mothers about a picture story. All children experienced problems with the need to focus simultaneously on the mother's signs and the picture book. Suggestions for developing visual…

Questions asked by parents of 12 young hearing children were compared with those asked by hearing parents of 17 preschoolers with deafness who used various linguistic input models (i.e., oral English only, cued speech, signed/manual English). Similar parent questioning strategies were found among groups matched for mean length of utterance.…

Reports on a longitudinal study of developing communication in two profoundly deaf preschool boys growing up in oral deaf families who use oral English as their primary language. Results provide a window on the natural ontogenesis of a compensatory gestural system. (Contains 44 references.) (JL)

Examines the effect that hearing parents' communication methods have on the self-esteem of their deaf children. Results indicate that adolescents whose parents used total communication (speech, finger spelling, and sign language) had higher self-esteem scores than adolescents whose parents used speech only. Makes recommendations for school social…

Evaluates a comprehensive intervention program for deaf children under age three in Vancouver, British Columbia. Twelve subjects were compared with a matched sample of children undergoing less-systematic intervention. Results indicated more developmentally mature communication and higher quality interaction in families who had received…

The present study examined the effects of communication mode (oral vs. oral plus manual) and level of communicative competence (high vs. low) on profoundly deaf preschool children's play interactions with their hearing mothers. The sample consisted of 28 dyads equally divided into groups of oral and simultaneous (oral plus manual) communicators…

This survey of seven hearing families with deaf children examined parent understanding of Signed English and American Sign Language, reasons for choosing Signed English, experiences with professionals and with other deaf adults, challenges of developing fluency in Signed English, and parental evaluation of the results of their use of Signed…

Examines from a Vygotskian perspective deaf children's private speech, i.e., speech that is spoken aloud (or visibly performed) but that is addressed to no particular person. Findings are consistent with Vygotsky's notion of the robustness of the phenomenon and its ontogenesis in early social communication. (33 references) (LR)