Maternal Interactions During Shared Book Reading in Children with Cochlear Implant and Their Typically Developing Peers: A Comparative Study

Shared book reading (SBR) is a pivotal activity in early childhood language development. However, children using cochlear implants (CIs) face challenges due to their auditory difficulties and the need for adapted communication strategies. This study aims to compare the maternal interactions during SBR by mothers of children with CIs and typically developing (TD) children.

Fifteen mothers of children with CIs and 20 mothers of TD children participated in the study. Each of them was given a picture-salient and a print-salient book to read to their child in any order. The interactions were video recorded and analyzed.

Mothers of children with CIs exhibited significantly more verbal and nonverbal behaviors compared to mothers of TD counterparts, particularly nonverbal references, which displayed a large effect size. Notably, while mothers of children with CIs showed significant differences in nonverbal references across both book types, mothers of TD children showed marked differences in verbal behaviors, including non-immediate talk, written text, and engagement with books. Additionally, analysis revealed that the correlation between the language proficiency of the mother and various verbal behaviors in both groups highlighted its importance in language development. Furthermore, the duration of therapy was significantly linked to the use of nonverbal references and providing text by mothers of children with CIs.

The study sheds light on the variations in maternal interaction in accordance with the types of books and also highlights the use of decontextualized language during SBR.