Language and Pretend Actions Understanding in Children with Hearing Loss.

Children born deaf to hearing parents may be delayed in their social-cognitive development due to their challenges in acquiring linguistic and communicative skills. The present study aims to determine whether this relates to their understanding of pretend actions and how this helps us understand the influence of language on children's social cognition. A total of 166 children (75 nonsigning deaf and hard of hearing and 91 hearing), aged from 3 to 8 years, were administered an expressive vocabulary task, a pretend actions task, and a nonverbal ability test, while their teachers or speech therapists completed two questionnaires, one demographic and one on linguistic-communicative skills. The results showed that the group of deaf and hard of hearing children had difficulties in understanding pretend actions, which were related to their linguistic and communicative skills. The role that language plays in understanding pretend actions and pretend play is discussed in this article, together with its implications for education.