The Efficacy of Mother-Child Social Interaction and Language Proficiency Among the Deaf Individuals

Abstract

The study sought to find out the efficacy of mother-child social interaction, rearing styles and working class mother home influence, on the competency skills of language development and utilisation among the deaf children. This is based on the fact that the warmth of the mother promotes affectionate tendencies and attachment, which in turns have impact on language and speech proficiency of the deaf It enhances communication and interactions of the growing child. However, the negative effect of deprivations, other language compensatory modalities, on language efficiency of the deaf cannot be underestimated. Sixty parents and sixty students were sampled in integrated schools. Questionnaires, interview, observation and video recording were used during play activities with both peers and parents in the school settings. Independent observers and raters were used to assess the mean length of language utterances as compared with normal children based on video-click. The results were collated and analysed. The findings revealed the needs for nurturant home and authoritarian rearing style as the best methods to improve the deaf language proficiency. There is, however, a negative effect of working mother on the language skills of the deaf child especially when not enrolled early in a nursery school or baby seater’s home. The researchers offered relevant suggestation as well as stressed the importance of the findings to educational practices.