FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HEARING MOTHERS AND THEIR DEAF OR HEARING INFANTS

This research was part of a longitudinal study investigating the impac t of early deafness on the cognitive, social, and communicative develo pment of deaf infants with normally hearing mothers in the first 18 mo nths of the child's life. The study examines the patterns of face-to-f ace interaction between deaf and hearing 9-month-old infants and their hearing mothers, to determine which infant behaviors are most affecte d by lack of access to the auditory channel of communication. Of parti cular interest was the infants' response to an age-appropriate stresso r, the ''still-face'' situation, which was introduced between two inte raction episodes. Although mothers of deaf infants appeared to compens ate by increasing their reliance on visual interaction strategies, the deaf infants used fewer overt signaling behaviors such as smiling, gr eeting, or reaching toward the mother and resorted more readily to sel f-comforting behaviors than did the hearing infants. However, the deaf infants also engaged in higher levels of repetitious motor activity, which could be interpreted by the partner as another form of eliciting behavior, albeit one that is not typically coded as such.