deaf and non-deaf

http://lifeprint.comIn my search for a topic to write about that I had some passion about I came across a new theory called the "Theory of Mind". The theory is related to the idea that an infant begins life with no idea that the world has an existance independent of their own sensory and motor behavior. In psychological theory there is a debate rageing over nature VS nurture in how people learn about the world. The "Theory of Mind" or ToM holds to the idea that children learn about other peoples feelings by watching and communicating with other people. How does this relate to deaf culture? The tests have showen that deaf children that are born to hearing families are more likely to hold false beleifes longer then children with deaf children and deaf families. False beliefes are refered to as thinking the other person that you are talking to sees things exactly the same way as you see it. For example, you are talking to a child on the phone and you ask what they are doing and the child respondes "playing with this" you answer "what is it" and the child respondes "THIS". The example over simplifies it a little but I am shore we all have seen some form of it in our lives. The reason that deaf children of hearing perants tend to hold these false beleifes longer is that most hearing mothers learn only enough signes to communicate with thier child. Most often the unused signes are those that communicate emotion and feeling other wise called mental state talk. "Previous research demonstrates the influence of family talk on typically developing children’s ToM development. Longitudinal investigations showed that mothers’ use of mental state concepts at early ages promoted children’s subsequent ToM skills (Jenkins, Turrell, Kogushi, Lollis, & Ross, 2003; Ruffman, Slade, & Crowe, 2002). Mothers’ frequency of mental state talk is associated with children’s use of such language (Furrow, Moore, Davidge, & Chiasson, 1992; Hughes & Dunn, 1998). Mothers’attribution of mental states to their young infants(e.g., ‘‘You think mommy’s funny?’’) has also been linked to children’s later understanding of the mind (Meins et al., 2003)". The solution is for mothers to use mental state talk in communicating with thier deaf child regularly and not leaveing them out of problem solveing. Children learn a lot by watching adults and do as they do. How is a deaf child supposed to learn that they are an idevidual if they are not showen how. The ToM says children need to be showen how to communicate with others to grow up mentaly strong and deaf children are no exception.



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