Difference Between Deaf Infants
Infants will cry, burp, and sneeze (vegetative sounds) before they produce any true speech sounds for the first 6 weeks of life. By 8 weeks, when the baby is happy he/she will start to coo (sounds like vowels). As the baby develops the coos become more complex (multiple vowels). By 16 weeks the baby will be laughing, and between 16-30 weeks producing a wide variety of sounds. You will see both consonant and vowel like sounds. Some common sounds you may see are /g/ and /k/, around 2 months. More sounds are produced by 6 months- /m/, /n/, /p/, /b/, and/d/. Babbling (“dada”) is a very important stage, and can differentiate between deaf infants from hearing infants. These babbles become more complex (“bada”), infants sound like they really talking.