Joint attention can be difficult for a child who is deaf, since they have to balance receiving visual language input while also paying attention to the world. Previous research has shown that signing deaf parents use tactile and visual strategies to direct their deaf child’s attention. However, there is little research done on non-signing deaf parent-child dyads. Here we asked what types of attention-getting strategies are used by deaf, non-signing mothers with their deaf child alongside how successful these strategies were in redirecting attention. We conducted a longitudinal case study of two non-signing deaf parent-child dyads. Non-signing deaf mothers used more tactile attention-getting strategies than visual strategies, with tactile strategies consisting of 78.7% of strategies used. However, .tactile strategies were only successful 51.4% of the time, while visual strategies were successful 65% of the time. The amount of attention getters used overall decreased as the child grew, but a trend cannot yet be established. Touch seems to be an important way for deaf, non-signing mothers to regulate attention. Considering that non-signing deaf mothers used similar strategies to signing deaf mothers, this indicates that the shared experience of deafness between a caregiver and child can shape how visual attention is scaffolded.
