This study, with 180 deaf or hard of hearing infants and toddlers grouped into four age ranges, found highly significant interrelationships among the four categories of play and the four aspects of communicative development studied. The development of autosymbolic play, age of hearing loss identification, and symbolic object distribution accounted…

Transcripts of the classroom conversations of seven profoundly deaf 13- and 14-year-old students and their teachers were analyzed, using Vygotsky's theories on the social nature of learning and the role of mediation. Results of the study found that conversation builds ideas, facilitates comprehension of text, encourages cognitive development, and…