Maternal Interactions During Shared Book Reading in Children with Cochlear Implant and Their Typically Developing...

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Speech and Language Pathology
• Audiology

Background:

• Shared book reading (SBR) is crucial for early language development.
• Children with cochlear implants (CIs) face unique communication challenges during SBR.
• Adapted maternal strategies may support language acquisition in children with CIs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare maternal interaction styles during SBR between mothers of children with CIs and typically developing (TD) children.
• To investigate the influence of book type (picture-salient vs. print-salient) on maternal behaviors.
• To explore the relationship between therapy duration and maternal interaction patterns.

Main Methods:

• Fifteen mothers of children with CIs and 20 mothers of TD children participated.
• Mothers read a picture-salient and a print-salient book to their child.
• Interactions were video recorded and analyzed for verbal and nonverbal behaviors.

Main Results:

• Mothers of children with CIs used significantly more verbal and nonverbal behaviors, especially nonverbal references.
• Mothers of children with CIs showed book-type differences in nonverbal references; TD mothers showed differences in verbal behaviors.
• Maternal language proficiency correlated with verbal behaviors; therapy duration linked to nonverbal references and text provision in the CI group.

Conclusions:

• Maternal interaction strategies during SBR vary based on book type and child's hearing status.
• Mothers of children with CIs employ distinct strategies, potentially influenced by therapy duration.
• Understanding these variations can inform interventions to optimize language development in children with CIs.