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Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access originally published online on September 28, 2005
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2006 11(1):132-133; doi:10.1093/deafed/enj005
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Published by Oxford University Press 2005.

dD, dH, hD, hH: The Gallaudet Infancy Study

The World of Deaf Infants

Meadow-Orlans, K. P., Spencer, P. E., & Koester, L. S. (2004). The World of Deaf Infants.

New York: Oxford University Press. 266 pages. Hardcover. $43.60.

Marc H. Bornstein

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development


   Introduction
TOP
 Introduction
Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Conclusion
 
The incidences of prelingual deafness are approximately 1 in 1,000 births; mild to moderate hearing loss (26–70 dB), 16 in 1000; and reduced hearing in one or both ears, 50 in 1000. In consequence, it is imperative to know more about early development amongst the Deaf. This volume takes a multidisciplinary perspective on theory and research about deaf and hearing infants of deaf or hearing parents and retells the empirical history of the Gallaudet Infancy Study. In 1984, when planning for the project began, there were few published studies of young deaf children.


   Methods
TOP
 Introduction
 Methods
Results
 Discussion
 Conclusion
 
Participants
Eighty core families [20 each deaf children with deaf mothers (dD), deaf children with hearing mothers (dH), hearing children with deaf mothers (hD), and hearing children with hearing mothers (hH)] participated in 4 waves of data collection between birth and 18 months. Parents were educated, urban, well supported, intact, and secure economically with their native language English or American Sign Language.

Procedures
Data on infant temperament, mastery motivation, attachment, communication, attention, and play, and parents' reactions, stress, and support were collected longitudinally at 9, 12, 15, and 18 months.


   Results
TOP
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
Discussion
 Conclusion
 
Similarities and differences across groups of infants and mothers emerged. Separate chapters focus successively on interaction, affect, thought, socialization, and communication.

Infants
For deaf infants, the world is perceived primarily through vision, and the findings report how infants and caregivers alike adapt.

Parents
Deaf parents substitute visual and tactile interactive techniques for auditory cues to facilitate visual attention. Deaf mothers use distinctive communicative strategies to accommodate their deaf children's singular needs for visual communication, attention, and exploration. Interactions in matched hearing-status dyads are more positive than in mismatched dyads.


   Discussion
TOP
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
 Discussion
Conclusion
 
The mandate of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening is to identify hearing status in all infants by 6 months. Increasingly, the Deaf community is recognized as having a distinct culture with distinct values and patterns of interaction. There have been few efforts, however, to follow deaf children longitudinally or to identify childrearing principles and practices among deaf parents.

Limitations
This research was conducted in separate phases—data collection on dH and hH in 1987–1991 and on dD and hD in 1992–1995—and so rapidly changing historical shifts in the Deaf culture suggest that cohort effects need to be considered. Considerable material here was previously published. Different data collection procedures were sometimes used with different groups, limiting analyses and interpretation, just as small Ns in some analyses render results suggestive and not generalizable. Matched and mismatched hearing status comparisons merit closer examination.


   Conclusion
TOP
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Conclusion
 
This volume reports the most impressive longitudinal study to date of emotional, social, cognitive, and communicative development among deaf and hearing infants of deaf or hearing parents and will prove a valuable guide for researchers, practitioners, and parents. However unbelievable, the analyses presented here describe the only systematic comprehensive comparative longitudinal data for deaf and hearing children with deaf or hearing parents across the first 2 years of life. The authors commendably break new ground in a field direly in need of tilling, sowing, and reaping.


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This Article
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11/1/132    most recent
enj005v1
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