Yu Chi-Lin, Stanzione Christopher M, Wellman Henry M, Lederberg Amy R
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Psychol Sci. 2021 Jan;32(1):109-119. doi: 10.1177/0956797620960389. Epub 2020 Dec 14.
Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children born to hearing parents have profound theory-of-mind (ToM) delays, yet little is known about how providing hearing assistance early in life, through cochlear implants and hearing aids, influences their ToM development. We thus addressed (a) whether young DHH children with early hearing provision developed ToM differently than older children did in previous research and (b) what ToM understandings characterize this understudied population. Findings from 84 three- to six-year-old DHH children primarily acquiring spoken language demonstrated that accumulated hearing experience influenced their ToM, as measured by a five-step ToM scale. Moreover, language abilities mediated this developmental relationship: Children with more advanced language abilities, because of more time using cochlear implants and hearing aids, had better ToM growth. These findings demonstrate the crucial relationships among hearing, language, and ToM for DHH children acquiring spoken language, thereby addressing theoretical and practical questions about ToM development.
听力正常的父母所生的失聪和重听（DHH）儿童存在严重的心理理论（ToM）发展延迟，但对于通过人工耳蜗和助听器在生命早期提供听力援助如何影响他们的ToM发展，我们却知之甚少。因此，我们探讨了以下两个问题：（a）早期获得听力援助的年轻DHH儿童在ToM发展方面是否与先前研究中的大龄儿童有所不同；（b）这个研究较少的群体在ToM理解方面有哪些特点。对84名主要学习口语的3至6岁DHH儿童的研究结果表明，通过一个五步ToM量表测量发现，累积的听力经验会影响他们的ToM。此外，语言能力在这种发展关系中起中介作用：由于使用人工耳蜗和助听器的时间更长，语言能力更先进的儿童在ToM发展方面表现更好。这些发现证明了对于学习口语的DHH儿童来说，听力、语言和ToM之间存在关键关系，从而解决了有关ToM发展的理论和实际问题。
