Qualitative Investigation on Wearing of Cochlear Implants and Developmental Changes in Communication of Deaf-Born Infants

Abstract

We investigated qualitative changes in the development of communication in two cases of deaf-born infants, during their first two years of wearing cochlear implants. The results were as follows.1) We found a certain degree of improvement in transmission and recognition of the‘vitality affect’of their parents' voices in both cases. 2) As a consequence, the infants came to pay attention to or guess at their parents' feelings, and we found the appearance of‘meta-level communication’functioning as the basis of language acquisition. 3) Such changes may be effected by a change in the quality of the psychological sympathetic relationship between parents and infants resulting from the transmission of the vitality affect. 4) Also, there may have been a positive impact from the parents' having already acquired their attitude as the communication partner before wearing of the cochlear implant, with wearing of the cochlear implant having started after the infants had achieved a certain level of communication development. 5) We found that the deaf infants' auditory experiences transcended the simple level of hearing the phonological form of words; their experiences, represented by‘the appearance of mother-infant communication through lullabies’, effected a change in the infants' quality of life, and also appeared to extend to recognition of Japanese social-cultural experiences that had been difficult to understand before surgery. 6) The findings suggested that for deaf-born infants wearing of cochlear implants in combination with use of manual communication can have various levels of significance for both the infant and parent.