Communication of oral deaf and normally hearing children at 36 months of age

Author(s): Geers, A. E.

Journal/Book: J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1997; 40: 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852-3279. Amer Speech-Language-Hearing Assoc. 1314-1327.

Abstract: Eighteen orally educated deaf and 18 normally hearing 36-month-old children were observed in a play session with their mother. Communicative behavior of the child was coded for modality and communicative function. Although the oral deaf children used a normal range of functions, both the quantity and proportions differed from normally hearing children. Whereas the normally hearing 3-year-olds used speech almost exclusively, the deaf children exhibited about equal use of speech, vocalizations, and gestures. Spoken language scores of the deaf children at 5 years of age were best predicted by (a) more frequent use of speech at age 36 months, (b) more frequent use of the Statement function, and (c) relatively infrequent use of: the Directive function. It is suggested that some communicative functions are more informative OF heuristic than others, and that the early use of these functions is most likely to predict later language competence.

Note: Article Nicholas JG, Cent Inst Deaf, Ctr Appl Res Childhood Deafness, Clin & Res Bldg, 818 S Euclid Ave, St Louis,MO 63110 USA

Keyword(s): communicative function; communicative intention; deaf; pragmatics; intentionality

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