COMMUNICATING ABOUT PRETEND PLAY - A COMPARISON OF THE UTTERANCES OF 4-YEAR-OLD NORMALLY HEARING AND DEAF OR HARD-OF-HEARING CHILDREN IN ANINTEGRATED KINDERGARTEN

The pretend-play utterances of 4 hearing-impaired and 4 normally heari ng preschool students were examined to investigate developmental diffe rences between these two groups of children. The study focused on pret end-play utterances related to objects, roles, and actions. Three vide otaped samples of free indoor-play sessions were coded for each subjec t. Statistical analyses of the data indicated that, compared to the no rmally hearing children, the hearing-impaired children used significan tly higher proportions of literal (as opposed to nonliteral) object ut terances and current-action (as opposed to scripted) utterances. The a rticle discusses implications of these findings for both groups of chi ldren in integrated settings and suggests some strategies for interven tion by teachers of the deaf.