Representational abilities and the wearing status of child/mother dyads

Two representational abilities, expressive and receptive language and symbo lic play, were assessed in multiple formats in hearing and deaf 2-year-old children of hearing and deaf mothers. Based on maternal report, hearing chi ldren of hearing and deaf mothers produced more words than deaf children of hearing mothers, hearing children of hearing mothers more words than deaf children of deaf mothers, and deaf children of deaf mothers more words than deaf children of hearing mothers. Based on experimenter assessments, heari ng children in both groups produced and comprehended more words than deaf c hildren in both groups. By contrast, no differences emerged among these gro ups in child solitary symbolic play or in child-initiated or mother-initiat ed child collaborative symbolic play; all groups also increased equivalentl y in symbolic play between solitary and collaborative play. Representationa l language and symbolic play were unrelated in hearing children of hearing mothers and in deaf children of deaf mothers, but the 2 abilities were asso ciated in children in the 2 child/mother mismatched hearing status groups. These findings are placed in the context of a proposed developing modularit y of verbal and nonverbal symbol systems, and the implications of hearing s tatus in communicative exchanges between children and their mothers in dive rse hearing and deaf dyads are explored.