The Experience of Story Reading: Deaf Children and Hearing Mothers' Interactions at Story Time

THE STUDY EXAMINED scaffolding interactions between deaf children and hearing mothers in which story reading was used as a tool to aid in the development of narrative comprehension and linguistic reasoning. The dyadic interactions were examined from the perspective of the theretical works of Vygotsky (1934/1962, 1978, 1929/1981, 1960/1981). The sample group consisted of 7 dyads of hearing mothers and their deaf children ages 4.2 to 9.5 years. The mothers signed a story to their children. The dyadic interactions reflected the different levels of scaffolding and functioning within the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1934/1962, 1978). The researchers found that story reading provides an excellent framework for both cognitive and emotional growth within the parent/child dyad. Mothers who engaged their children in mutual dialogue also used elaboration. This was reflected in their children's linguistic reasoning. The incidence of profound deafness is low: Deaf children make up only about 196 of the total population of schoolchildren. Eighty-five percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. Once in school, deaf children write and read at significantly lower levels than their hearing peers. More than 30% of deaf students leave school functionally illiterate, compared to less than 1% of hearing students (Marschark, 1993). Deaf children of deaf parents generally have better language abilities than deaf children of hearing parents. They also have a more optimal adjustment in terms of greater impulse control, a higher level of maturity, and a stronger sense of responsibility (Meadow, 1980). Feelings of powerlessness about parenting in hearing parents of deaf children have been linked to controlling, nonmediating parental communications, leading to poor functioning in school and lower reading levels (Schlesinger, 1972, 1988a, 1988b; Schlesinger & Acree, 1984; Schlesinger & Meadow, 1972). Schlesinger and Meadow (1972, 1976) found that communicative competence in deaf children ages 3, 5, and 8 years was related to reciprocal and supportive interactions with their mothers. The facilitating interactions were marked by the child's curiosity, mediation of the environment, and teaching at the child's instigation (Meadow, 1980; Schlesinger, 1988a, 1988b, 1992; Schlesinger & Meadow, 1972,1976). This style of communication facilitates abstract reasoning ability in the conceptual realm and higher levels of literacy in the future (Schlesinger & Acree, 1984). Vygotsky (1934/1962, 1978) held that it is through repeated positive experiences of collaboration and the availability of a mentoring figure that children learn to plan their activities. The structure of some adult-child discourse provides scaffolding, allowing children to participate in conversations beyond their competence (Junefelt, 1990). Vygotsky (1934/1962, 1978) saw scaffolding as taking place in the "zone of proximal development." This idea envisions the relationship and discrepancy between mature and maturing processes, what a child can do alone and in collaboration with others. In a longitudinal study, Schlesinger (1988a, 1988b, 1992) found that internalization of the communication patterns is reflected by children moving from concrete to abstract and from perceptual to conceptual. Wertsch (1979, 1984, 1985) identified four levels of scaffolding from interindividual to intraindividual functioning of communication. At the first level, the affective quality of the interaction is dominant. The mother imputes meaning to the child's responses and responds on behalf of the child (Junefelt, 1990). The second level is still dominated by the affective quality, but the communicative and pedagogic aspects begin to assume a more important role in certain activities. Level 3 is characterized by increased development from interindividual to intraindividual relationship functioning in the child. The adult and child are often in harmony in defining the intersubjective situation, but the child still requires some guidance. …