Supporting pragmatic skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing students during peer-to-peer interactions

This study investigated the pragmatic skills of 41 deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students, enrolled in a Deaf Facility within a mainstream primary school. Five groups of DHH students (aged 6–12 years) across Foundation to Year 6 participated in two small-group wellbeing lessons with their teachers of the deaf. Video recordings of these lessons were analysed into two types of interactions: (1) peer-to-peer, and (2) teacher-led group interactions. Peer-to-peer interactions were further analysed to explore the pragmatic skills of these students. Results showed that the highest percentage of time at all year levels was spent in group interactions led by the teacher. However, the trend across the data showed that the opportunities provided for peer-to-peer interactions increased for the students in the older year levels. The DHH students demonstrated a range of effective pragmatic skills in peer-to-peer interactions including turn-taking, contingency, and showing sensitivity to their partners during collaborative learning. However, the use and sophistication of these pragmatic skills varied according to the nature of the task set by the teachers, and the age and language abilities of the students. The findings suggest that further opportunities for spontaneous interactions between peers would support the development of pragmatic skills in DHH students. In addition, teachers would benefit from professional learning to highlight the advantages of providing opportunities for spontaneous peer-to-peer interactions to support social communication in DHH students.