Experiment reveals differences in socio-cognitive skills in deaf and hearing toddlers, suggesting implications for theory of mind development.
The development of socio-cognitive skills depends on understanding others' behavioral cues. We studied 43 toddlers (21 girls, 22 boys, aged 10-37 months; 74% White Hispanic), including 21 deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children, using data collected in Catalonia (Spain) between November 2022 and July 2023. An experimenter indicated a hidden toy's location to an assistant either by a point with gaze or by gaze only. Both DHH and hearing toddlers understood the point with gaze cue. However, only the hearing group interpreted the gaze-only cue by reliably searching for the hidden toy. These findings reveal early language-related differences in social-cognitive development that may underlie later challenges in complex theory of mind reasoning.
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Figueroa et al. (2026) studied this question.
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