Describes the preliminary results of a project to help two young developmentally delayed, visually handicapped children acquire communicative responses in the course of specially designed social routines. These social routines combined nursery rhymes with carefully planned action sequences. Midway through the three-year project, one child was using words for objects, people, and actions, and initiating play activities on her own. The other child also progressed far beyond the developmental stage she was in when the project began.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BrunerJ.Early social interaction and language acquisition. In SchafferM. (ed.), Studies in mother-infant interaction.London: Academic Press, 1977.
2.
Mundy-CastleA.Perception and communication in infancy. A cross cultural study. In OlsonD. R. (ed.), The social foundations of language and thought: Essays in honor of Jerome S. Bruner.New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1980.
3.
O'DonohoeN.Epilepsies of childhood.London: Butterworth, 1979.
4.
PiagetJ.Play, dreams and imitation in childhood.New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1962.
5.
RogowS.Rhymes and Rhythms: An Approach to language stimulation for blind multihandicapped children. Unpublished report to the Vancouver Foundation, 1982.
6.
TrevarthenC.The foundations of intersubjectivity: Development of interpersonal and cooperative understanding in infants. In OlsonD. R. (ed.), The social foundations of language and thought: Essays in honor of Jerome S. Bruner.New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1980.
7.
TrevarthenC., and HubleyP.Secondary intersubjectivity: confidence, confiding, and acts of meaning in the first year. In LockA. (ed.), Action, gesture and symbol: The emergence of language.London: Academic Press, 1978.
