Professional paper
How Can Hands Help Language and Speech – Manual Signs and the Child With Down Syndrom
Mirela Berglez
; Centar za odgoj i obrazovanje „Slava Raškaj“
Ljubica Pribanić
; Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Zagreb
Abstract
Scientific research confirm that early use of manual signs in children who do not speak for a variety of etiological reasons brings a number of advantages: it stimulates development of social interaction and early language abilities, it extends communication functions and understanding of information, in which way the child collects experience and comprehension about itself and surrounding world. The attachment between the parent and the child is accentuated, and clatter, crying and displeasure is decreased. The majority of children with Down syndrome (DS) have a delayed oral language development. A child with DS will sooner focus attention to the visual sign than to the vocal expression, which speaks in favour of encouraging social interaction with manual signs; the reception of manual signs stimulates manual expression. In the implementation of this program within early intervention we wanted to verify the efficacy of communication stimulation with manual signs. The hypothesis was that the child will firstly start using a manual sign for communication purposes, and afterwards, from a certain sign, a spoken word or a sentence will be developed. The readiness of the parents and extended family to accept that mean of communication is crucial for the child’s benefit in acquiring language and speech, as well as all other aspects of development. The program began with ten manual signs that the parents found important for their communication with their child. It was carried out intensively for one school year in the family house, once a week for sixty minutes. It can be concluded that the child, out of eighty manual signs that were gradually introduced, started using the oral language expressions of twenty-one manual signs for communication purposes after ten months of active incitement. Manual signs were a good communication mean for this child in its pre-linguistic period and they stimulated its oral language expression.
Keywords
early communication; supported language development; manual signs; child with Down Syndrome
Hrčak ID:
124774
URI
Publication date:
8.7.2014.
Visits: 4.743 *