Co-viewing an Educational Video: A Pilot Study About Mother-DHH Child Interaction

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Educational Psychology
• Deaf Education

Background:

• Understanding mother-child interactions is crucial for educational outcomes.
• Specific strategies may be employed by mothers of children with hearing impairments to facilitate learning.
• Co-viewing educational videos is a common practice in early childhood education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the post-video co-viewing interaction strategies of mothers with deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) children and mothers with typically hearing (TH) children.
• To investigate differences in questioning and explanation-prompting techniques used by mothers in relation to their child's hearing status.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of mother-child interactions following educational video co-viewing.
• Involved 12 Spanish hearing mothers of DHH children (7-9 years old) and 12 Spanish mothers of TH children (age-matched).
• Focused on the types and frequency of questions asked and strategies used to elicit explanations.

Main Results:

• Mothers of DHH children asked significantly more questions than mothers of TH children to assess comprehension.
• Mothers of DHH children utilized shared experiences and focused on video content to prompt explanations.
• Mothers of TH children encouraged their children to initiate or continue explanations more frequently.

Conclusions:

• Mothers of DHH children adopt distinct interaction strategies, emphasizing questioning and shared experiences, to support learning from educational media.
• These findings suggest tailored approaches in educational interventions for DHH children and their families.
• Maternal age did not significantly influence the observed interaction strategies.