Home environment of infants with risk indicators for hearing loss tends to be less stimulating

To verify the home opportunities to the motor development offered to infants with and without risk indicators for hearing loss (RIHL).

Observational transversal study was done with infants between 8 and 10 months, being 77 with RIHL (Study Group-SG) and 77 without RIHL (Control Group-CG) The instrument used to characterize the sample and obtain information about the home affordances was the questionnaire Affordances in the Home Environment for the Motor Development - Infant Scale (AHEMD-IS). The results of the AHEMD-IS between the groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney and Chi-Squared tests. The significance test adopted for the study was 5%.

Absolute values in the frequency of homes considered "moderately adequate" and "less than adequate" were greater in the SG in the most part of the categories, except the item Toys for Fine Motricity. It was possible to observe a statistically significant difference in the Total Score of the groups (p-value = 0.01346). Even with better results when compared with the SG, the number of homes of the CG group with affordances below expected is more than half of the sample.

It was possible to verify that home of infants with risk indicators for hearing loss have statistically less affordances when compared to the homes of infants without the indicators. The results alert us to the need of orientation to the infant's responsible/caretakers regarding to the importance of a favorable environment with stimulation of the infant motor development.