Maternal Sensitivity and the Visual Attentiveness of Children Who Are Deaf

✍ Scribed by Meadow-Orlans, Kathryn P. ;Spencer, Patricia E.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Weight: 969 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1057-3593
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0917(199612)5:4<213::aid-edp134>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

Maternal sensitivity may be even more important for the development of deaf infants' social and cognitive competence than previous research has shown it to be for hearing children. We report ratings of mothers' sensitivity and infants' time in coordinated joint attention (CJA) during play interactions videotaped in a laboratory at 9,12 and 18 months. Participants include 80 dyads in four groups: two matched for hearing status (Deaf or Hearing mothers with deaf or hearing babies), two unmatched for hearing status (Deaf mothershearing babies and Hearing motherddeaf babies). Mothers in matched dyads were rated more sensitive than mothets in unmatched dyads. Deaf infants with Deaf mothers showed more time in CJA compared to infants in unmatched dyads. However, significant correlations of sensitivity and attention were found only for the two unmatched hearing status groups at 18 months. These results are discussed in terms of dyadic hearing status differences, intuitive parenting and developmental stage. 019% by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.