DEFINING AND OBSERVING SOCIAL SIGNALS IN DEAF AND HEARING INFANTS

Infant gaze, gestures, and affective expression have become generally accepted as indicators of the infant's efforts to initiate or resume i nteraction with a partner, particularly during moments when the mother may be temporarily unresponsive as shown experimentally in the matern al ''Still-Face'' situation. Previous studies comparing deaf and heari ng infants using this paradigm have revealed diminished signalling by deaf infants with hearing mothers, when signals were defined by the ty pical indices mentioned above. This study compares results from both a microanalytic coding system (used with 59 dyads) and a more global ex amination of efforts by 20 deaf and 20 hearing infants to re-engage th eir deaf or hearing mothers. Emphasis is on the kinds of infant signal s that often remain undocumented due to methodological constraints, bu t that may be recognized by the mother and elicit a delayed response f rom her when she is able to resume her normal interactive patterns. Re sults indicate that when these additional ''signal'' behaviors are con sidered (such as repetitive hand, arm, or foot movements, or behaviors previously prohibited by the mother), there are few overall differenc es in eliciting efforts by deaf and hearing infants.