This study examines the processes by which mothers communicate with their hearing and deaf preschool children during a problem-solving task. Mothers and children from three matched groups—hearing mother-hearing child, hearing mother-deaf child, and deaf mother-deaf child—were videotaped while the mother taught the child to assemble a wooden pyramid. Hearing mothers of deaf children were less likely to adapt their interactional strategies to meet their children's communicative needs and achieve intersubjectivity than were the other mothers. Findings support Vygotsky's dialectical notion of cognitive development.
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