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Purpose: To evaluate joint engagement (JE) in age-matched children with and without hearing and its relationship to oral language skills. Method: Participants were 180 children with severe-to-profound hearing loss prior to cochlear implant surgery, and 96 age-matched children with normal hearing; all parents were hearing. JE was evaluated in a 10-minute videotaped free play task with parents. Engagement states ranged from the lowest (unengaged) to the highest level (symbol-infused coordinated). Standardized language measures were administered. Results: Multivariate analyses were conducted between the groups, stratified by chronological and language age. Children who were deaf (Deaf) spent less time in total symbol-infused JE than children with normal hearing (NH) across all ages. The majority of the Deaf group (83%) fell in the lowest language age group, in comparison to 35% of the NH group, and spent significantly less time in symbol-infused JE than hearing children. These delays were also observed in the Deaf group, who fell into the 18-36 month language age. No children in the Deaf group had achieved a language age of > 36 months. Conclusions: Young children with and without hearing had different developmental trajectories of JE, which were related to oral language skills. Key Words: cochlear implants, children, joint engagement, hearing loss, language, A considerable body of literature suggests that joint engagement between a parent and child develops in the first 3 years of life (Adamson, Bakeman, & Deckner, 2004). This developmental process [...]

14 mothers of children who were deaf or hard of hearing provided magnitude estimation scaling responses for the speech intelligibility and speech annoyance of narrative speech samples produced by children who were deaf or hard of hearing. Analysis indicated that listeners scaled intelligibility and annoyance the same. As samples became more difficult to understand, they also became more annoying to these listeners. Implications for further research are discussed.

Researchers examined the literature concerning the role of parent-child communication in the development of deaf children. Visual-spatial methods of interacting develop naturally between a deaf child and a deaf parent but more than 90% of deaf children have hearing parents. Research indicates that the social and emotional development of deaf children with hearing parents will be inversely related to the level of hearing loss. Many studies indicate the value to the child's social and emotional development of developing visual and tactile communication techniques.