UEA study tracking babies brainwaves to help deaf infants
Researchers at the University of East Anglia is now looking for more hearing families with deaf babies under one to take part
A Norfolk University is looking to track babies brainwaves, as part of a new study to improve deaf infants start to life.
The £1 million project aims to help these children gain stronger language skills and improve support families get.
Babies taking part in this will be fitted with a special cap of neuroimaging sensors that will detect their brainwaves as they are shown images of familiar and non-familiar objects.
Meanwhile, an eye-tracking device will monitor exactly where they are looking.
19 months old, baby Colton is one of the first to take part in the project. He was born deaf to hearing parents Clodagh and Munro, from Ireland.
The team are now looking for more hearing families with deaf babies under one to take part.
"We are always hunting for every possible advantage"
Colton’s mum Clodagh, said: “We know that Colton has limitless potential, and we want to give him every opportunity to thrive.
“We are constantly learning, and we are always hunting for every possible advantage. These types of studies give us valuable information and tools - to give Colton the best start and to support him in every way we can on his own journey.”
"I think that might save a lot of pain and trouble"
Eryk Mejia is a research associate from UEA. He is also himself deaf and born to hearing parents
"So now that I know sign-language, something that would be really helpful for a lot of deaf babies, like I was, would be to have access to rich language early on.
"I think that might save a lot of pain and troubles for navigating systems when it comes to the likes of language therapy"
"Many deaf children with hearing parents enter school with delayed language skills and learning gaps"
Lead researcher Professor Teodora Gliga, from UEA’s School of Psychology, said: “Because of varying language experiences, many deaf children with hearing parents enter school with delayed language skills and learning gaps.
“We want to change that trajectory by working directly with deaf babies and toddlers to track how early language access - or the lack of it - shapes cognitive growth during the first two years of life.
“One child in every 1,000 is born deaf, and the vast majority of these children are born to hearing parents.
“Most hearing parents use spoken language as their primary language which is at least partially inaccessible to their deaf child. Deaf parents however use sign language, which is fully accessible to the child.
“Many deaf infants born to hearing parents will experience reduced access to the main language used by their family.
“We want to better understand the large variation in communicative development and school-readiness of deaf children born to hearing parents.”
“Another important aspect of the project will be to characterise the impact that using sign language has on early learning,” said Prof Gliga.
“Some hearing parents of deaf children learn sign language, but it may take time for them to reach the fluency required for conversation.
“But even signing with lower proficiency may support the learning of categories and this may explain why deaf children that have some sign language exposure tend to fare better academically".