Abstract
We examined the understanding of another's intention in conversation in 45 children with hearing impairment as compared with that in 232 children of the same age with normal hearing. Three kinds of task scenes were set as context-conscious conditions requiring understanding using social knowledge and conditions without context, and the reply was requested by description.
The results suggested that children who are hard of hearing had delay in understanding intention using social knowledge, especially in tasks requiring interpersonal consideration. The relevance of the language ability as a factor to the delay was high, while there was no correlation with the hearing level.
The language ability to understand another's intention by using social knowledge is acquired from the latter part of childhood to the age of schoolchildren, but even when simple conversation is not hindered, the language development problems of hearing-impaired children are overlooked. Instead, it is necessary to consider the application of guidance.
