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Teachers' ratings of their hearing-impaired students in Denmark and the United States were collected and compared. The instrument used was the Meadow/Kendall Social Emotional Assessment Inventory (SEAI), specifically constructed for use with this population. American students from day programs ( N = 364) and from residential programs ( N = 368) were compared with Danish students from day programs ( N = 289). When age was controlled, scores on the three subscales (social adjustment, emotional adjustment, self-image) were almost identical. Differences on 29 of the 59 individual items likewise were not significant. Additional item analyses suggested that Danish teachers may value modesty, reserve, and introspective and individually focused attitudes and behaviors, whereas American teachers are more likely to value assertiveness, creativity, and extroverted and group-focused behaviors. Both groups of teachers gave their students generally low ratings on items reflecting motivation, independence, and initiative. The suggestion was made that parents and teachers need to reassess opportunities given to hearing-impaired children to develop independence and responsibility, qualities important for maturity. The conclusion is reached that the Danish and American children are evaluated by their teachers as having very similar levels of overall social and emotional functioning. The content of evaluations leading to that result was similar to some extent: Approximately half the individual inventory items showed no differences among the groups. The shift in high and low ratings on additional items led to the suggestion that cultural differences played a role in determining the content of definition of adjustment to some limited extent.

Videotaped samples of interaction were collected from seven deaf mothers and deaf children, 14 hearing mothers and deaf children using oral-only communication, 14 hearing mothers and deaf children using simultaneous (oral + sign language) communication, and 14 hearing mothers and hearing children. Transcripts were coded for dyadic interaction and for functional communication. Deaf children and hearing mothers using oral-only communication spent significantly less time engaged in interaction than did mothers and children in the other three groups. These dyads also had the least numbers of child-initiated bouts and the highest proportion of nonelaborated bouts. Deaf mothers and deaf children were similar to hearing mothers and hearing children; hearing mothers and deaf children using simultaneous communication were intermediate in interactional complexity. The major finding is that which affirms the similarities between the deaf-mother/deaf-child pairs and the hearing-mother/hearing-child pairs. The children in these two groups share an ability to carry on conversations about themselves, their mothers, and nonpresent objects and events.