For Hearing Impaired Parents, a New App Notifies When Your Baby is Crying and Why

  Before they are able to speak, crying is the primary way our babies communicate with us. But what are they trying to tell us with their wails and whimpers? Parents eventually learn to differentiate the different cries of their babies and can tell fairly accurately whether their little one is hungry, in pain, or simply fussy. This knowledge of what different cries mean is invaluable in knowing what type of care a baby needs at a given time. But for deaf and hard of hearing parents, deciphering their babies’ wails can be a difficult challenge. Parents Delbert and Sanaz Whetter, who are deaf, rely on cameras and remote noise-monitors to keep an eye on their children, one of whom is an infant. These devices are particularly useful when the Whetters are in another room–but these technologies also have limitations. “We have a child who is talkative. The alerts go off, but there is no way to distinguish between loud talking noises and crying,” Delbert said. But now the Whetters, and many other families, have a new ally in childcare — a groundbreaking app developed by UCLA researchers that can interpret a baby’s cries and tell parents what is likely to be the cause.

Creating the app

Dr. Ariana Anderson, a statistician in the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and also a mother of four, came up with the idea for the app, and led a research team in its creation. Dr. Anderson said, “I realized that the cries of my third baby were remarkably similar to the cries of the first two. As a mother, you instinctively know what your child is trying to tell you simply by listening to how they cry, even if you can’t see them. As a statistician, I thought, ‘Can we train an algorithm to do what my ears as a parent can do automatically?’ The answer was yes.” Through hard work and a great deal of research, the doctor and her team developed ChatterBaby, an app which uses artificial intelligence to achieve the remarkable feat of discerning why a crying baby is upset. In creating the app, the researchers uploaded audio samples of more than 2,000 infant cries. Then, they designed and tested algorithms that divided cries into three categories: pain, hunger and fussiness. The algorithms correctly flagged the type of cry, such as pain cries from babies receiving vaccinations or ear-piercings, more than 90 percent of the time. “Between fussy and hungry, it’s a little bit hard to tell. But pain we could identify with nearly 90 percent accuracy,” she said. If a cry has a long period of silence between wails, it’s like the baby is fussy, she said. Constant, high-pitched screams usually mean something hurts.

How does it work?

Through machine learning, ChatterBaby is able to adapt and learn how better and more accurately identify your baby’s cries by comparing it to the cries in their database. To use the app, parents first record and upload their babies’ cries, which are subsequently analyzed using an advanced algorithm. This algorithm is regularly updated and revised with new data, which means it can be re-tuned to understand your baby’s specific cries and sounds. The more you “feed” ChatterBaby sounds of your baby crying, babbling or laughing, the better it will be able to “learn” your baby’s unique acoustic features and improve its analysis. Delbert Whetter was impressed with the app’s potential. “For the first time, 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,” he commented. After testing out the app in their own home, the Whetters said they wanted to start using the device right away. “We can’t have eyes everywhere, so that would be really nice to have,” Delbert said.

Other benefits of ChatterBaby

As well as assisting parents who are deaf or hard of hearing, the ChatterBaby app has the potential to help parents who don’t have any hearing issues. For new parents, it can be confusing to try to discern the meaning of each cry and what their baby is trying to communicate. The algorithm-based technology may also be of assistance to women who suffer from postpartum depression, as there is evidence that this group may have more difficulty understanding the meaning of their babies’ cries. This technology benefits parents, but it may help babies even more. Research shows that when babies cry, more timely rates of appropriate parental response can in fact help with language development in infants, which means that deaf parents who use this app may see a boost in language development in their children. Finally, there is hope in the scientific community that a new crying-pattern study linked to the app will offer clues into whether specific crying patterns can be associated with certain infant development disorders such as autism, later on. The app is free and is now available for download on iPhone and Android devices and at ChatterBaby.org.

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