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.
By 12 months, you may see their first true words.