Communication strategies between young deaf children and their hearing caregivers in Ghana

Abstract

This study examined the communication strategies between young deaf children and their hearing caregivers to identify the specific strategies and the embodied communication modalities that the two groups of interlocutors employ during their interactions. The study also provided understandings of the factors that account for miscommunication and successful communication between the two groups. Interactional videos of six deaf children and six hearing caregivers were purposively sampled in two schools for the deaf and a home in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions of Ghana. The data were multimodally analyzed through a cross-case analysis method. The findings of the study indicated that deaf children and caregivers employ various strategies such as repetitions, simultaneous communication, and simultaneity of gestures during their interactions. Deaf children and hearing caregivers used embodied communication modalities including sign language, natural gestures, pointing, eye gaze, touching and tapping as well as waving for expressive and receptive communication. It was recommended that hearing caregivers in both the home and school contexts should employ varieties of communication strategies to enhance understanding between themselves and deaf children during interaction and also to promote the communication development of deaf children