For all the parents out there, we know you want what’s best for your new baby. You hear your baby’s cries and drop everything to go to your child and find a way to soothe them, whether they’re hungry, need a diaper change, feel pain, or are just being a bit fussy. But what if you can’t hear clearly, and can’t decipher the cries that tell you what your baby needs?
There’s an App for That
If you’re a hearing-impaired parent, and you’re worried that your baby might suffer because of your hearing loss, there’s an app that could change the way you parent. Created by Dr. Ariana Anderson at the UCLA Medical Center and Semel Institute, the app is designed to help parents understand their newborn’s cries.
After the birth of her third child, Anderson realized that all her children’s cries had some similar patterns. Babies have slightly different cries for when they are hungry, fussy, or in pain. Anderson collected more than 2,000 infant cries, then created an algorithm that interpreted what the cries meant. “Between fussy and hungry, it’s a little bit hard to tell,” explains Anderson, “but pain we could identify with nearly 90 percent accuracy.” For example, if the cries are constant and high-pitched they usually indicate pain, while a single cry with long periods of silence between usually mean the baby is fussy.
Testing the App
Delbert and Sanaz Whetter have 2 children, one of whom is an infant son, but they have a few more challenges to overcome than normal parents. Both Delbert and Sanaz are deaf, so if they’re in a different room than their kids, they rely on cameras and sound monitors to tell them how their children are feeling. But this wasn’t enough to give them peace of mind. “We can only tell if there is something loud happening in the room,” said Delbert. “We have a child that is very talkative. He would babble. So, we can’t distinguish between loud noises and crying.”
After testing the app, the Whetters couldn’t believe how helpful it was. It made a huge difference in their parenting, allowing them understand how their baby was feeling even if they couldn’t hear him. Sanaz hopes “the app will help more than just the deaf community but hearing people too,” and highly recommended the app to deaf and hearing parents alike.
How the Chatterbaby App Works
Chatterbaby, the new app developed by Anderson, uses artificial intelligent to notify parents when their baby is crying. But it does far more than that. It helps determine why the baby is upset. “For the first time,” reports Delbert, “we can confirm that our baby is crying, and then learn with a great deal of certainty what he’s crying about. That an app can do this is really amazing.” This app provides a lot of information about crying patterns, and researchers hope the data collected through the app will allow them to learn even more about how babies communicate.
For Babies Too
The Chatterbaby app isn’t just good for parents. Babies also benefit from this new technology. With appropriate parental responses to crying, babies show faster language development, and increased bonding with parents. Anderson hopes that further research into babies’ cries could help recognize other patterns in development, such as showing links between infant communication and developmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder. Current research shows that babies who are at higher risk of developing autism have abnormal cries long before they are diagnosed.
Get the Chatterbaby App
If you’re a new parent looking for a little direction, a parent who struggles to hear, or a seasoned parent who could use a helping hand, the app is now available for free on iPhone and Android devices. You can also find it at chatterbaby.org. On the website you can even record and upload your baby’s cries, and the artificial intelligence will analyze it for you.
Treating Hearing Loss
Do you have hearing loss? Check out the Chatterbaby app and find out what your baby is trying to tell you. If you struggle to hear, then visit us at My Hearing Centers for a hearing assessment and hearing aid fitting. It’s time to hear your baby crying, and be the best parent you can be.