- Email: [email protected]
Pre-linguistic interaction between visually impaired infants and their mothers
693
PRE-LINGUISTIC VISUALLY IMPAIRED
INTERACTION INFANTS AND
BETWEEN THEIR MOTHERS
Julie Rattray & M. Suzanne Zeedyk Psychology Department, University of Dundee, DUNDEE, DDl 4HN, UK The early communication of infants and caregivers has received much attention within areas of “typical” development, but less attention has been given to dyads in which infants are experiencing some type of disability. The present study examined free-play interactions between infants who are visually impaired (VI) and their mothers. Traditionally, when visual impairment in children has been the subject of research, studies have focused on children who have begun to acquire language, whereas the focus of this study was the pre-linguistic period. We hypothesised that the absence of the visual channel would alter dyadic play in specific ways. We expected that: 1) the types of play in which dyads engaged would differ, due to differences in the way that VI infants use objects (Fraiberg, 1971; 1974; Wills, 1979); 2) that early vocalisations of VI infants would reduced, given their later delay in language acquisition (Birmingham, 1960; Fraiberg, 1977; Moore & MacConachie, 1994) and a need to rely more heavily on the auditory channel (Fraiberg, 1971); and 3) that parents of VI infants would vocalise more often, due to a need to compensate for the loss of the child’s visual channel. Participants were eight mother-infant dyads; half of the infants were visually impaired and half were sighted. Infants were matched for age: 7, 11, 21, and 24 months. Ten minute free-play interactions were videotaped, and three separate minutes were coded for the following variables: 1) Types of play (i.e., social, object, or combined social/object); 2) Number of infant vocalisations; and 3) Number of parent vocalisations. Results indicated that mothers of VI children engaged in less combination play than did mothers of sighted children. This has implications for the joint attention capacities of dyads and may be due to mothers’ difficulties in interpreting the focus of attention in their VI infants, particularly at very young ages. In regard to infant vocalisations, no differences emerged in the two groups. Previous studies have suggested that VI infants vocalise less often due to an increased use of the auditory channel in attending to their external environment. However, many of the relevant studies (Roland, 1983; Urwin, 1984) have focused on language acquisition, while the present study focused on vocalisations of any type. It may be important for future research to discriminate between these two types of vocalisations. Finally, contrary to our hypothesis, mothers of VI infants vocalised less often to their children than did mothers of sighted infants. It may be that parents of VI infants find it difficult to adjust to their infant’s needs; that is, to place greater emphasis on the auditory, rather than visual, channel of communication. These results are interesting because little research has examined the prelinguistic interactions of VI infants and parents. Overall, they suggest that the nature of such interactions differs from that of sighted dyads. These implications are important not only for research on the development of visually impaired children, but also for proposing theoretical accounts of development in general.
PRE-LINGUISTIC VISUALLY IMPAIRED
INTERACTION INFANTS AND
BETWEEN THEIR MOTHERS
Julie Rattray & M. Suzanne Zeedyk Psychology Department, University of Dundee, DUNDEE, DDl 4HN, UK The early communication of infants and caregivers has received much attention within areas of “typical” development, but less attention has been given to dyads in which infants are experiencing some type of disability. The present study examined free-play interactions between infants who are visually impaired (VI) and their mothers. Traditionally, when visual impairment in children has been the subject of research, studies have focused on children who have begun to acquire language, whereas the focus of this study was the pre-linguistic period. We hypothesised that the absence of the visual channel would alter dyadic play in specific ways. We expected that: 1) the types of play in which dyads engaged would differ, due to differences in the way that VI infants use objects (Fraiberg, 1971; 1974; Wills, 1979); 2) that early vocalisations of VI infants would reduced, given their later delay in language acquisition (Birmingham, 1960; Fraiberg, 1977; Moore & MacConachie, 1994) and a need to rely more heavily on the auditory channel (Fraiberg, 1971); and 3) that parents of VI infants would vocalise more often, due to a need to compensate for the loss of the child’s visual channel. Participants were eight mother-infant dyads; half of the infants were visually impaired and half were sighted. Infants were matched for age: 7, 11, 21, and 24 months. Ten minute free-play interactions were videotaped, and three separate minutes were coded for the following variables: 1) Types of play (i.e., social, object, or combined social/object); 2) Number of infant vocalisations; and 3) Number of parent vocalisations. Results indicated that mothers of VI children engaged in less combination play than did mothers of sighted children. This has implications for the joint attention capacities of dyads and may be due to mothers’ difficulties in interpreting the focus of attention in their VI infants, particularly at very young ages. In regard to infant vocalisations, no differences emerged in the two groups. Previous studies have suggested that VI infants vocalise less often due to an increased use of the auditory channel in attending to their external environment. However, many of the relevant studies (Roland, 1983; Urwin, 1984) have focused on language acquisition, while the present study focused on vocalisations of any type. It may be important for future research to discriminate between these two types of vocalisations. Finally, contrary to our hypothesis, mothers of VI infants vocalised less often to their children than did mothers of sighted infants. It may be that parents of VI infants find it difficult to adjust to their infant’s needs; that is, to place greater emphasis on the auditory, rather than visual, channel of communication. These results are interesting because little research has examined the prelinguistic interactions of VI infants and parents. Overall, they suggest that the nature of such interactions differs from that of sighted dyads. These implications are important not only for research on the development of visually impaired children, but also for proposing theoretical accounts of development in general.