33

Dealing with the news that a child is deaf is not easy, especially when the parents of the child are not themselves deaf. This article reviews the question of the very first exchanges that one must make with a deaf child in order to best develop its ability for joint attention—the capacity to share the same object of interest through the coordination of gazes and then actions. Joint attention is a social communication skill that is a predictor of language skills. What part does it play for a deaf child? In this article we detail the four difficulties the deaf child encounters in developing joint attention, and discuss the strategies such a child will put in place so as to circumvent these difficulties. Finally, we conclude that an early introduction of hearing devices coupled with sign language or cued speech appears to be a powerful combination in order to help deaf children of hearing parents to develop communication skills while simultaneously allowing hearing parents to take more pleasure in communicating with their deaf child.