Perception of motherese in a signed language by 6-month-old deaf infants.

Abstract

The study explored the possibility that characteristics in perception of speech sounds found in preverbal hearing infants might extend to perception of signed languages in congenitally deaf infants during the same period. Participants were deaf mothers (N = 17) and their deaf infants; 5 of the dyads were used to prepare the stimulus tape later shown to the remaining 12 dyads. To develop the tape, the 5 mothers were observed when reciting identical scripts in Japanese Sign Language either toward their infants or toward their deaf friends. The videotape showed that mothers used signs at a significantly slower tempo when interacting with their infants than when interacting with their friends, often repeating the same sign and exaggerating the movements associated with each sign somewhat. When the stimulus tape was presented, deaf infants showed greater attentional and affective responsiveness to infant-directed signing than to adult-directed signing. The fact suggests that human infants may be equally predisposed to attend to motherese characteristics in speech or sign.