General description and aim

The study presented here is part of an on-going project funded by The Swedish Research Council. The overall aim of the project is to study social and communicative interaction between young deaf children and their deaf parents, focusing on factors assumed to be prerequisites for later mentalizing abilities and learning (Falkman, Roos & Hjelmqvist, 2007), in particular the development of strategies for expressing and understanding intentions. However, the aim of this particular study is to explore different ways in which interaction is shaped and develops between deaf parents and their deaf infants (birth to 24 months). Focus is on the reciprocal interaction where the child and parent influence each other’s behavior.The specific aim is to describe the patterns of interaction underpinning symbolic intersubjectivity later in development.

Theory

Intersubjectivity refers to the shared involvement in another person, sharing thoughts and seeing the other as a subject with intentions and feelings, and at the same time experiencing own intentions and the ability to share those (Loots & Devisé, 2003). In hearing infants this development begins early in life (Trevarthen, 1979, 1993) and continues in mutual interchange where the child has the possibility to perceptualize what is happening in the interaction (Akhtar & Tomasello, 1998). A considerable amount of research has been conducted regarding the importance of early interaction between caregiver and infant (Green et.al., 2010; Meins, 1997; Trevarthen, 1979). There is also research identifying the behaviour of deaf mothers with deaf children (Harris, 2001; Loots & Devisé, 2003, 2005) as well as the impact these behaviours have on the dyadic interaction, both regarding the on-going interaction and the infant’s later development, i.e regarding the development of intersubjectivity. Even though there is a large amount of previous research in this field, only a few studies have been reported dealing with deaf infants younger than 18 months. This is also true for studies reporting on the development of intersubjectivity in deaf dyads. The present study is therefore an important contribution to this field of research.

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