Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Exploring In Silence: Hearing And Deaf Infants Explore Objects Differently Before Cochlear Implantation, Mary K. Fagan

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Infant development has rarely been informed by the behavior of infants with sensory differences despite increasing recognition that infant behavior itself creates sensory learning opportunities. The purpose of this study of object exploration was to compare the behavior of hearing and deaf infants, with and without cochlear implants, in order to identify the effects of profound sensorineural hearing loss on infant exploration before cochlear implantation, the behavioral effects of access to auditory feedback after cochlear implantation, and the sensory motivation for exploration behaviors performed by hearing infants as well. The results showed that 9-month-old deaf infants explored objects as often …