Nonverbal communicative skills used with peers by deaf and hearing five-year-old children

This study was planned as a means of gaining an increased understanding of nonverbal communicative skills used by preschool children. The purpose of the study was to determine similarities and differences between deaf and hearing five-year-old children during their inside and outside free play. Child-centered leadership in free play was of interest rather than group situations structured and directed by adults. The writer assumed that five-year-old children use a variety of nonverbal communicative skill; five-year-old children tend to differ in the ways in which they use nonverbal communicative skills. Included in the study were two groups of five children each. The deaf children were students of the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson, North Carolina. The five deaf children were considered to be normal except for their deafness. The five hearing children, considered to be normal five-year-old children, were attending the Parkway Baptist Church Kindergarten. The two groups were matched according to age and sex