The ability of 5- to 12-year-old deaf children to utilise and interpret ano
ther person's visual line of regard (where the eyes are looking) was studie
d in four experiments using cartoon faces. The children had little difficul
ty in determining whether or not a face was looking directly at them. They
had more difficulty, however, with more complex tasks requiring them to inf
er. mental states of desire and intention from line of regard and to ignore
line of regard when it was inappropriate to attend to this are. Deaf child
ren raised ill a hearing environment appear to have more difficulty with th
ese more complex tasks than hearing children. The results are discussed in
terms of the special difficulties facing some deaf children in the developm
ent of skills involving utilisation of line of regard and the implications
for the development of joint attentional behaviour; theory of mind and dyad
ic social interaction in deaf and hearing children.