Abstract
Mother-child interactions of two 2 year-old deaf infants who both had not yet acquired expressive language were studied by means of behavioral category method and qualitative analysis of the protocols. The results of the study are as follows: One subject showed indirect behavior in the communication with his mother. As the induced-elicited behavior, the mother of this child was observed to have kept a well-balanced way of communication using both direct behavioral and indirect verbal means. On the other hand, the other subject whose mother was observed to have basically used direct behavioral means of communication with her child showed a bahavior which is often difficult to judge whether it is an anticipatory response or a direct behavior in his communication with the mother. In further investigation of the data, it is hypothesized that the pre-linguistic and conventional expressive means of communication such as pointing, vocalization, gesture, on the part of the deaf child, might increase before the acquisition of linguistic means. However these might be reduced to a certain degree with the acquisition of oral or sign languages, which are the linguistic means. It is hypothesized, also, that the vocalization might consist of two different stages of development. The one shows phonetically consistent form like the intonational contour, and the other is such that reflects the motivation aspect of pleasure-displeasure by the child. And the former will be reduced with the acquisition of the linguistic means.
