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
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Special Education,
Faculty of Educational Studies, submitted to the school of
Graduate Studies, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Special Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
