Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 5:2 2000
© 2000 Oxford University Press
Empirical Articles |
Tactile Contact by Deaf and Hearing Mothers During Face-to-Face Interactions With Their Infants
The University of Montana
Tactile contact with an infant plays an important role (though one largely overlooked by researchers until recently) in the development of synchronous interactive dialogues between caregiver and child. Dyads in which one or both partners are deaf present a unique opportunity to examine the use of touch as a means of optimizing or enhancing communication when the number of available sensory channels is restricted. Touch in these dyads may play an important role in eliciting visual attention, in alerting the infant that signed communication is forthcoming, in assisting the infant to achieve emotional regulation, or in simply maintaining contact even when the deaf child has looked away from the partner. The data presented here represent one attempt to investigate the role of touch in relation to deaf infants and deaf parents, for whom it may play a particularly salient role. Both deaf and hearing mothers were observed in videotaped face-to-face interactions with their infants (also either deaf or hearing); maternal behavior was coded for each event during which mothers initiated tactile contact with the infant and was classified according to intensity, location on the infant's body, and type of touch (e.g., active vs. passive). Results of this study indicate that deaf mothers may be especially responsive to the tactile needs of their deaf infants, as shown by qualitative differences in their behavioral interactions with 6- and 9-month-olds. However, hearing mothers with deaf infants also appear to be incorporating more active forms of touch in their interactions, although they tend to rely on longer durations of tactile contact than do the deaf mothers.
Portions of this paper were originally presented as part of a symposium
entitled "Communicating with Touch during Mother-Infant
Interactions," at the Biennial Meetings of the Society for Research in
Child Development, Indianapolis, Indiana, April, 1995; and as a poster at the
annual meetings of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Boulder,
Colorado, April 1995. Support for this longitudinal research was provided by
grants from the Division of Maternal and Child Health and Resources
Development (Grant MCJ-110563), the Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitation Services, the March of Dimes/Birth Defects Foundation (Social
and Behavioral Sciences Research Grant No. 12-FY94-0686), and the Alexander
von Humboldt Foundation Transcoop Program. Many colleagues have also provided
invaluable guidance and suggestions in the course of this project,
particularly Drs. Kathryn Meadow-Orlans, Patricia Spencer, Robert MacTurk,
Hanu
and Mechthild
Papouek, and Carol Erting. Technical
assistance and support services during data collection were provided by
Barbara Gleicher, Natalie Grindstaff, Chapman Hom, Gwendolyn Horton, Karen
Kautz, Arlene B. Kelly, Carlene Thumann-Prezioso, Linda Stamper, and Victoria
Trimm. We thank the infants and mothers who participated so cheerfully, the
many students who assisted with coding, and the off-site personnel involved in
recruitment and data collection. Marie Gage helped in the development of a
Touch Coding System and the training of coders in its use.
Received February 22, 1999; revised July 29, 1999; accepted September 7, 1999