Variations in Maternal Play Behaviors Affected by Hearing Status

Early face-to-face interactions between infants and their caregivers sets the stage for later language development. As social, cognitive, and motor skills emerge with age, parent-child dyads begin to engage in object play. When children are born with sensorineural hearing loss, they do not have access to sound during these exchanges. Some families decide to pursue cochlear implantation (CI), giving children access to sound for the first time. Previous research has found that parent-child interactions become more synchronous following CI, but no work has yet looked at the nature of how mothers manage free-play sessions with their children. Do they engage in more dyadic play relative to age-matched peers, to compensate for the lack of early auditory input? We hypothesized mothers with children with CIs would spend a greater proportion of time in dyadic play versus object play. Our sample included a group of children implanted before 2 years old (N = 12), a group of age-matched peers (N = 11), and a group of hearing-age matched peers (N=7). We coded maternal behavior during a five-minute parent-child interaction in the lab, in which several objects (e.g., key, stuffed dog) were present. We adapted a coding scheme from Bakeman and Adamson (1984) and Labrell (1996). Analyses revealed that contrary to our hypothesis, mothers with children with CIs engaged in more object play. Subcategories were also analyzed. Future research will investigate language outcomes for each participant group relative to play proportions.A three-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Speech and Hearing Scienc