News Humans

Rain Bosworth studies how deaf children experience the world

The deaf experimental psychologist has found that babies are primed to learn sign language

Rain Bosworth smiling and looking at a parent-child pair to her left. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and wearing blue button-up shirt. The parent is looking at an iPad, sitting in front of them on a round table. The iPad is displaying what appears to be a video with a person signing. The parent has black hair and wearing a navy polka dot shirt. The child is sitting on the parent's lap and staring at Bosworth.

Work by deaf experimental psychologist Rain Bosworth (left) suggests that babies have an innate sensitivity to sign language.

Mike Guinto

By Meghan Rosen

In a darkened room in Rochester, N.Y., a baby girl in a pink onesie peers at a computer screen. Wherever she looks, an eye tracker follows — recording her gaze patterns for future analysis.

The baby, about 6 months old, is neither deaf nor hard of hearing.