Lynne Sanford Koester

Mother-Infant Hearing Status and Intuitive Parenting Behaviors during the First 18 Months

Infants enter the world prepared to learn about their environments and to become effective social partners, while most parents are equally prepared to support these early emergent skills. Through subtle, nonconscious behaviors, parents guide their infants in the regulation of emotions, language acquisition, and participation in social exchanges. For example, Deaf mothers modify their signed communication when it is directed to an infant, in much the same way that hearing adults vary their pitch and melodic contours when speaking to an infant. Both hearing and Deaf parents may also accommodate to an infants hearing status during play interactions in ways that facilitate the childs attention to both the object and the social world. In the present study, such intuitive parenting behaviors were compared at infant ages 6, 9, 12, and 18 months, based on observations of Deaf and hearing mother-infant dyads.

Emotional Availability and Touch in Deaf and Hearing Dyads

In recent years , increasing attention has been given to the development of deaf children, though few studies have included Deaf parents. The present study examined emotional availability (EA) and functions of touch used by Deaf or hearing parents with hearing or deaf infants during free play. Sixty dyads representing four hearing status groups were observed when the infants were 18 months old. Comparisons among all four groups revealed significant differences in regard to parental sensitivity and child responsiveness, with hearing mothers with deaf infants tending to score lowest in the various subcategories of EA. Significant differences were also found for attentional touch and total touch, with deaf mothers of deaf or hearing infants using both types of touch more than hearing mothers of deaf or hearing infants. The importance of support and interventions for hearing mothers with deaf infants is discussed.