Language, play and early literacy for deaf children: the role of parent input

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews and synthesizes research into the ways in which parents support their child across three major developmental domains in early childhood: early language, play and early literacy. We show how these domains are linked to each other and suggest that there is some evidence that interventions in all of them will promote mutual development. Early interventions that focus on parent–child interactive experiences that are both routine and ‘exotic’ in nature are likely to be more powerful than practitioner-dominated interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Deaf children
• early intervention
• parent scaffolding
• early development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Associate Professor P. Margaret Brown is a Principal Fellow at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests are in the early development of deaf children and how their interactions with parents support learning.

Dr Linda M. Watson is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her research interests are the language and literacy development of deaf children.