Role-Taking Ability and Social Behavior in Deaf School Children

This study assessed the relationship between role-taking skill and social-emotional adjustment in deaf children. Twenty-three prelingually deafened boys and girls between 7 and 14 years of age were administered a role-taking task, surreptitious behavioral measures of helping and altruism, and a measure of nonverbal intelligence. In addition, two professionals experienced in working with deaf children rated the social and emotional adjustment, language/communication skills and role-taking ability of the participants. Performance on the role-taking task correlated positively with ratings of emotional adjustment, self-image, communicative effectiveness and role-taking skill Role-taking performance, however, was not reliably related to any of the measures of social behavior. The study also considered several factors which may account for the apparent independence of role-taking and social behavior.