# Do gestures facilitate the participation of deaf children with a cochlear implant in interactions during family dinners?

Stéphanie Caët, Loulou Kosmala

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Stéphanie Caët, Loulou Kosmala. Do gestures facilitate the participation of deaf children with a cochlear implant in interactions during family dinners?. ISGS 2025, Jul 2025, Nijmegen Netherlands, France. hal-05158481

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Submitted on 11 Jul 2025

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# Do gestures facilitate the participation of deaf children with cochlear implants in interactions during family dinners?

Stéphanie Caët¹², Loulou Kosmala³

¹University of Lille; ²UMR 8163 Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL); ³University Paris-Est Créteil & UR 3959 - IMAGER / IDEAL

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

## CONTEXT

### Children learn language from

* being spoken to (e.g. Tomasello, 2003; Rowe & Snow, 2020)

* speaking and co-constructing dialogue (e.g. Vygotsky, 1934; Bruner, 1983; Salazar Orvig, 2019; Masson, 2022)

* listening to/observing others in interaction/dialogue (e.g. de Léon, 2000; Akhtar, 2005; Fitch et al., 2020)

### Family dinners are an ideal locus for language socialisation (Ochs and colleagues) yet a complex one

* a multi-party communicative habitat (De Leon & Martinez, 2008) with multiple participation frameworks (Goffman, 1981)

* a multi-activity setting (Haddington et al., 2014) which may have an impact our body and environmental organisation (Kendon, 1990) and the semiotic resources we call for to interact (Goodwin, 2017)

### Deaf children in hearing families

* may have difficulties in participating in conversations (Crowe & Dammeyer, 2021)

* as RECIPIENTS (ADDRESSED and UNADDRESSED)

* as SPEAKERS

* may thus lack language learning & socialisation opportunities

* cf. language deprivation (Cheng et al., 2019; Hall & colleagues)

* cf. dinner table syndrome (Meek, 2020)

* which may have an impact on their well-being as children & later as adults (Hall et al., 2018)

## RESEARCH QUESTIONS

During family dinners, to what extent do deaf children with cochlear implants (CI) participate in interactions as:

* SPEAKERS/LANGUAGERS ('direct' participation)

* ADDRESSEES ('direct' participation)

* UNADDRESSED participants ('indirect' participation)

What is the role of gesture and gaze?

## DATA

### 5 French-speaking families of 4 to 5 members

* 2 hearing parents (M/F)

* 1 hearing elder child (Ca)

* 1 deaf younger child (Cb) with CI

* (1 hearing younger child)

+ 2 French-speaking families

* with 2 hearing parents

* and 2-3 hearing children

* from the DINLANG corpus

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Age of Cb<br>(deaf with CI)</th><th>Age of Ca<br>(older child)</th><th>Other modes of<br>communication in family</th><th>Duration<br>of dinner</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>SI-FAM4</td><td>2;6 yo (CI at 11 mo)</td><td>4 yo</td><td>None</td><td>28 min</td></tr><tr><td>SI-FAM2</td><td>5;6 yo (CI at 11 mo)</td><td>8 yo</td><td>None</td><td>17 min</td></tr><tr><td>SF-F5</td><td>6 yo (CI at 2 yo)</td><td>8 yo</td><td>Coded French, signs</td><td>26 min</td></tr><tr><td>SI-FAM1</td><td>10 yo (CI at 15 mo)</td><td>13 yo</td><td>None</td><td>33 min</td></tr><tr><td>SI-FAM3</td><td>10 yo (CI at 1 yo)</td><td>13 yo</td><td>None</td><td>35 min</td></tr></tbody></table>

## RESULTS

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Proportion of language modality / total time of language by participant</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Children with CI</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Hearing children</figcaption></figure>

### Participation as speakers/languagers...

Deaf children with CI "language" 22%-40% of the overall languaging time of all family members (4-5 members).

### ...and gesture

4/5 children produce vocal language more than visual or bimodal language. However, all five deaf children with CI use gestures (in visual or bimodal languaging) more than their older sibling, which is not the case in families with hearing children.

### Participation as addressees...

27-48% of the overall languaging produced by other family members is addressed to deaf children with CI.

### ...and gesture

When addressing children with CI, family members produce mainly vocal language.

However, some tend to use gestures (in visual or bimodal languaging) more when they address the child with CI, which is not the case in families with hearing children.

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>Children with CI</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>Proportion of language modality directed vs. not directed to Cb</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>Hearing children</figcaption></figure>

Language NOT directed to Cb

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /><figcaption>Children with CI</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /><figcaption>Hearing children</figcaption></figure>

<caption>Proportion of language modality gazed at by Cb when language is NOT directed to Cb</caption>

Language directed to Cb

<figure><img src="image_14.png" /><figcaption>Proportion of language modality gazed at by Cb when language is directed to Cb</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

### Participation as unaddressed and gaze...

When unaddressed, children with CI don't look much at the speaker/languager (7%-24% of the time), which is not the case of hearing children.

### ...and gesture

When unaddressed, 2/5 children with CI look more at the speaker/languager when s/he uses gestures (esp. in bimodal languaging). (When addressed, all 5 children look more at the speaker/languager when s/he uses visual and/or bimodal languaging.)

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>

## CONCLUSION

Deaf children with cochlear implants do participate in interactions during family dinners, as speakers/languagers and as addressees.

However, when not addressed, they may not hear the surrounding language and hardly look at it.

* For some of them, the use of gestures by speakers/languagers attracts their gaze and may enable them to access non-directed language.

### Next steps:

* Collect and analyze more data → identify tendencies and measure individual differences

* Study interactional dynamics in such multi-party and multi-activity settings → better understand gesture and gaze behaviors.

* Increase families and professionals' awareness of the role of gestures and gaze in deaf children's participation in everyday interactions and language development.

### Selection of references:

* Cheng, Q., Roth, A., Halgren, E., & Mayberry, R. I. (2019). Effects of Early Language Deprivation on Brain Connectivity: Language Pathways in Deaf Native and Late First-Language Learners of American Sign Language. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13, 320. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00320

* Crowe, K., & Dammeyer, J. (2021). A Review of the Conversational Pragmatic Skills of Children With Cochlear Implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 26(2), 171-186. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enab001

* Fitch, A., Lieberman, A. M., Luyster, R. J., & Arunachalam, S. (2020). Toddlers' word learning through overhearing: Others' attention matters. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 193, 104793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104793

* Hall, W. C., Smith, S. R., Sutter, E. J., DeWindt, L. A., & Dye, T. D. V. (2018). Considering parental hearing status as a social determinant of deaf population health: Insights from experiences of the « dinner table syndrome ». PLOS ONE, 13(9), e0202169. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202169