Initiations of social interactions by young hearing impaired preschoolers

Amatzia Weisel*, Tova Most, Clara Efron

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined strategies for initiating social interactions with peers, among 4 children with hearing impairment, aged 33 to 36 months, attending a special early education center or a regular kindergarten. The study investigated initiation type (related to partner's hearing status) and rates of initiation success/failure vis-à-vis hearing and deaf partners. Results revealed (a) more initiations in the regular program than in the special program; (b) in the special program, much more successful initiations toward children with hearing impairment than toward hearing children; (c) vocalization as the most frequent strategy used with both hearing and hearing-impaired partners; and (d) referential decisions about their initiations even among young children with hearing impairment (made by changing frequencies of various strategies according to partner's hearing status). The discussion addressed implications regarding integration of children with hearing impairment into regular educational settings.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)161-170
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2005

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