Work

Syntactic Strategy Training for Theory of Mind in Deaf Children

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) show delays in Theory of Mind (ToM) development. Complement sentences such as "Eliane says that Santa Clause exists" influence ToM performance. Can a training program targeting sentential complements enhance ToM? Twenty-one French-speaking DHH children (Mage = 8 years 11 months) with delays in ToM and sentential complements completed a first series of tests (T0). Children were tested again to control for maturation effects (T1), after which they were included in a 6- to 8-week training program targeting complements with verbs of communication. Post-training tests (T2) assessed if the training yielded improvements on complements (direct effect) and ToM (transfer effect). While no gains were noted in the absence of training (at T1), results indicate post-training (T2) improvements in complements and ToM tasks, suggesting that the acquisition of sentential complements provides a tool to represent subjective truths and boosts ToM reasoning in DDH children.

Source: The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enab034

Authors: Stephanie Durrleman, Annie Dumont, Hélène Delage

Institutions: University of Geneva, University of Fribourg, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie

Language: English

Topic: Hearing Impairment and Communication

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung