Supporting pragmatic skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing students during peer-to-peer interactions

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the pragmatic skills of 41 deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students, enrolled in a Deaf Facility within a mainstream primary school. Five groups of DHH students (aged 6–12 years) across Foundation to Year 6 participated in two small-group wellbeing lessons with their teachers of the deaf. Video recordings of these lessons were analysed into two types of interactions: (1) peer-to-peer, and (2) teacher-led group interactions. Peer-to-peer interactions were further analysed to explore the pragmatic skills of these students. Results showed that the highest percentage of time at all year levels was spent in group interactions led by the teacher. However, the trend across the data showed that the opportunities provided for peer-to-peer interactions increased for the students in the older year levels. The DHH students demonstrated a range of effective pragmatic skills in peer-to-peer interactions including turn-taking, contingency, and showing sensitivity to their partners during collaborative learning. However, the use and sophistication of these pragmatic skills varied according to the nature of the task set by the teachers, and the age and language abilities of the students. The findings suggest that further opportunities for spontaneous interactions between peers would support the development of pragmatic skills in DHH students. In addition, teachers would benefit from professional learning to highlight the advantages of providing opportunities for spontaneous peer-to-peer interactions to support social communication in DHH students.

KEYWORDS:

• Pragmatic skills
• deaf and hard-of-hearing students
• peer-to-peer interactions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Louise Paatsch

Professor Louise Paatsch is the Deputy Director of REDI at Deakin University. Her background is in oral language development, literacy, and deaf education in early childhood and primary school education. Louise's research uses mixed methods approaches, including video methodology, to investigate oral language, play, and literacy development, as well as teacher talk during intentional oral language teaching, teacher professional learning, and teacher as researcher. Louise also researches pragmatic skill development of children and young people with hearing loss who use spoken language and their hearing peers. Louise has many publications and has presented at both national and international conferences.

Kaye Scott

Dr Kaye Scott is a casual lecturer and casual research fellow at Deakin University. As a teacher, she has worked in various educational roles at both country and city locations, in general and special education. Her experience includes an extensive period as a literacy specialist and as visiting (itinerant) teacher of the deaf. She established the Brighton Hearing Unit in Melbourne and was a founding member of the Victorian Deaf Education Institute (VDEI) a division of the Department of Education and Training in Victoria. She is the current chairperson of the National Association of Australian Teachers of the Deaf, and over the past ten years has presented at several national and international conferences.

Dianne Toe

Dianne Toe is an Honorary Professor in the School of Education in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University. She has worked as an academic in the fields of Psychology, Audiology, and Education since 1983 at the Universities of Melbourne and Newcastle and at Deakin University. Dianne is actively involved in research relating to the development of pragmatic skills in deaf and hard of hearing children, including the way these skills intersect with many aspects of child development. Dianne is widely published and a respected presenter in her field.