Emotional Availability and Touch in Deaf and Hearing Dyads
American Annals of the Deaf
|September 1, 2015
Summary
Deaf parents show higher emotional availability and use touch more with their infants. Hearing mothers with deaf infants may need additional support for optimal parent-child interaction.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Parent-Child Interaction
- Deaf Studies
Background:
- Growing focus on deaf child development, yet limited research on Deaf parents.
- Parental interaction styles significantly impact child development.
- Understanding diverse parental experiences is crucial for inclusive support.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate emotional availability (EA) and touch in Deaf and hearing parents with hearing or deaf infants.
- To compare EA and touch patterns across four parent-infant hearing status groups.
- To identify potential disparities in parental sensitivity and responsiveness.
Main Methods:
- Observation of 60 parent-infant dyads at 18 months.
- Inclusion of four groups: Deaf parents/deaf infants, Deaf parents/hearing infants, hearing parents/deaf infants, hearing parents/hearing infants.
- Assessment of emotional availability and specific functions of touch during free play.
Main Results:
- Significant differences in parental sensitivity and child responsiveness were found.
- Hearing mothers with deaf infants exhibited lower scores in emotional availability subcategories.
- Deaf mothers (of deaf or hearing infants) used attentional and total touch more frequently than hearing mothers.
Conclusions:
- Parental hearing status influences interaction dynamics and emotional availability.
- Hearing mothers parenting deaf infants may require targeted support and interventions.
- Deaf parents demonstrate effective interaction strategies, highlighting the need for inclusive research and support systems.
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