Tactile Language Part 4: Language must be sensorily accessible

These five webinars are based on different chapter of our book If you can see it you can support it. They consist of theory, knowledge, tools, practical ideas, and tips on how to support and give the best opportunities for language development in a tactile modality, so that the person with congenital deafblindness is recognised as a human being using language.

 

Lecturer: Helle Buelund Selling

In his article Language must be sensorily accessible, Professor Arnfinn Vonen empathizes that “a child with congenital deafblindness will have the best conditions for linguistic and communicative development if he or she is exposed to a tactilely fully accessible language.” As Vonen further writes, “this seems to be banal and self-evident”, but it is not that simple as deafblindness challenge both communication partners with low readability. This webinar is inspired by Arnfinn Vonen´s article and we will use video analysis to set focus on different strategies and methods the seeing and hearing communication partners can use to scaffold activities and dialogues, so language becomes sensorily accessible – also to the communication partner with congenital deafblindness. The aim is to support language use and language development, conceptualization, and co-creation of meaning. 

 

The lecture is inspired by chapter 5 in the book If you can see it, you can support it – A book on tactile language. Prepare by reading the chapter.