Joint attention in deaf and hearing 22 month-old children and their hearing mothers

Attention regulation among people, objects, and symbols was investigated in 48 toddlers at 20-24 months (M = 22 months); 24 hearing child/hearing mother dyads and 24 deaf child/hearing mother dyads. Hearing loss was prelingual and in the severe to profound range for all deaf children. Deaf children spent significantly less time in episodes of joint attention and significantly more time alone with objects than did hearing children. Analyses of time spent in different kinds of joint attention revealed two differences: deaf children spent virtually no time in symbol-infused joint attention while their hearing peers spent nearly one third of their time in this attention state; deaf children spent significantly more time in coordinated joint attention than did their hearing peers. The results suggested that time spent in joint attention increases during the second year even if children do not infuse symbols into their interactions with others.