Maternal scaffolding of pretend play was investigated in ten hearing mother/hearing child (Hh) dyads and ten hearing mother/deaf child (Hd) dyads. Three videotaped samples of play interaction were collected when the children were 28, 29 and 30 months of age. The videotapes were segmented according to four levels of maternal participation (dyadic play, play commentary, play observation and disengagement) and levels of child pretend play were compared. For the Hh dyads, maternal participation in pretend play (dyadic play or play commentary) was associated with higher levels of child pretend play although there was no significant difference in child play level between these two conditions. For the Hd dyads, only the dyadic play condition was associated with higher levels of child pretence. Discriminant function analysis showed that, contrary to previous studies indicating that mothers of children with hearing loss are more topic dominant, it was the combination of more frequent modelling and attention-getting and reduced amounts of encouragement that discriminated between the two groups of mothers. (Contains 8 tables.)