MATERNAL SENSITIVITY AND THE VISUAL ATTENTIVENESS OF CHILDREN WHO AREDEAF

Maternal sensitivity may be even more important for the development of deaf infants' social and cognitive competence than previous research has shown it to be for hearing children. We report ratings of mothers' sensitivity and infants' time in coordinated joint attention (CJA) du ring play interactions videotaped in a laboratory at 9, 12 and 18 mont hs. Participants include 80 dyads in four groups: two matched for hear ing status (Deaf or Hearing mothers with deaf or hearing babies), two unmatched for hearing status (Deaf mothers/hearing babies and Hearing mothers/deaf babies). Mothers in matched dyads were rated more sensiti ve than mothers in unmatched dyads. Deaf infants with Deaf mothers sho wed more time in CTA compared to infants in unmatched dyads. However, significant correlations of sensitivity and attention were found only for the two unmatched hearing status groups at 18 months. These result s are discussed in terms of dyadic hearing status differences, intuiti ve parenting and developmental stage. (C)1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Lt d.