Learning to Look for Language: Development of Joint Attention in Young Deaf Children

TLDR

Joint attention in hearing children relies on spoken input, whereas deaf children must continuously shift visual attention between people and objects to achieve the same joint attention. The study examined how sign‑language dyads achieve joint attention within a single visual modality. Four deaf children aged 1 y 9 mo to 3 y 7 mo were observed during naturalistic interactions with their deaf mothers. The children displayed frequent, meaningful gaze shifts and were highly responsive to maternal cues, with gaze control largely established by age two, and these modality‑specific patterns differed from those seen in hearing children.

Abstract

Joint attention between hearing children and their caregivers is typically achieved when the adult provides spoken, auditory linguistic input that relates to the child's current visual focus of attention. Deaf children interacting through sign language must learn to continually switch visual attention between people and objects in order to achieve the classic joint attention characteristic of young hearing children. The current study investigated the mechanisms used by sign language dyads to achieve joint attention within a single modality. Four deaf children, ages 1;9 to 3;7, were observed during naturalistic interactions with their deaf mothers. The children engaged in frequent and meaningful gaze shifts, and were highly sensitive to a range of maternal cues. Children's control of gaze in this sample was largely developed by age two. The gaze patterns observed in deaf children were not observed in a control group of hearing children, indicating that modality-specific patterns of joint attention behaviors emerge when the language of parent-infant interaction occurs in the visual mode.