PROJECT SUMMARY
Difficulties with social communication are among the core impairments of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
and pose significant challenges for the one in 44 American children diagnosed with ASD. Early disruptions in
social interaction, especially the establishment of episodes of joint attention between children and their
parents, are believed to be at the root of the language impairment that is often comorbid with ASD.
Deaf parents have significant advantages over hearing parents in their ability to obtain, maintain, and direct the
visual attention of their children. Yet the behavior of Deaf parents of children with ASD – hearing or deaf – has
never before been studied.
This project aims to compare the attention-regulating strategies of Deaf and hearing caregivers of children with
ASD. First, we aim to study dyadic interaction between Deaf and hearing caregivers and their children with
ASD in order to determine if Deaf caregivers differ from hearing caregivers in the modalities and strategies
employed to obtain and maintain their children’s visual attention. Second, we seek to determine if specific
attention-regulating strategies result in more and longer episodes of joint attention, setting the stage for a more
favorable environment for language development.
Overall, the project aims to leverage the benefits of Deaf adaptiveness in the visual modality over the social-
cognitive challenges of ASD. The results will advance our understanding of the impact that parent behavior has
on language and cognitive development, and will inform the development of training interventions for parents of
children with ASD.
