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
Pm. Brown et al., 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 Volta review, 99(1), 1997, pp. 5-17
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.