Symbolic gesturing: creating opportunities for emotional connections between practitioners and infants in day care
Symbolic gesturing: creating opportunities for emotional connections between practitioners and infants in day care
This article reports on how symbolic gesturing was applied in a nursery setting. Forms of signing systems have been well documented as contributing to communication, predominately used alongside speech when there is a different mother tongue or a physical impairment [Goodwyn, S. W., & Acredolo, L. P. (1993). Symbolic gesture versus word: Is there a modality advantage for onset of symbol use? Child Development, 6, 688–701]. Symbolic Gesturing (SG) is an emerging area to support pre-verbal infants in communicating more effectively. In this article, SG was evaluated as way of reflecting and developing practitioner’s emotional responses and initiations with the infants in their care. The narratives of three practitioners using SG were gathered over several months and revealed how SG created further opportunities for reflection regarding the emotional relationships with infants they cared for. SG was considered a valuable approach to enhancing the emotional interactional connections with infants, resulting in closer, more attuned relationships.
biographical research, day care, infants, practitioner, Symbolic gesturing
Norman, Amanda
c6cb7f4e-59d7-4598-b1ca-88ce3a72b073
Byrne, Jenny
135bc0f8-7c8a-42d9-bdae-5934b832c4bf
Norman, Amanda
c6cb7f4e-59d7-4598-b1ca-88ce3a72b073
Byrne, Jenny
135bc0f8-7c8a-42d9-bdae-5934b832c4bf
Norman, Amanda and Byrne, Jenny
(2019)
Symbolic gesturing: creating opportunities for emotional connections between practitioners and infants in day care.
Early Child Development and Care.
(doi:10.1080/03004430.2019.1659787).
Abstract
This article reports on how symbolic gesturing was applied in a nursery setting. Forms of signing systems have been well documented as contributing to communication, predominately used alongside speech when there is a different mother tongue or a physical impairment [Goodwyn, S. W., & Acredolo, L. P. (1993). Symbolic gesture versus word: Is there a modality advantage for onset of symbol use? Child Development, 6, 688–701]. Symbolic Gesturing (SG) is an emerging area to support pre-verbal infants in communicating more effectively. In this article, SG was evaluated as way of reflecting and developing practitioner’s emotional responses and initiations with the infants in their care. The narratives of three practitioners using SG were gathered over several months and revealed how SG created further opportunities for reflection regarding the emotional relationships with infants they cared for. SG was considered a valuable approach to enhancing the emotional interactional connections with infants, resulting in closer, more attuned relationships.
Text
GECD-2019-0287.R1_Proof_hi
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 21 August 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 August 2019
Keywords:
biographical research, day care, infants, practitioner, Symbolic gesturing
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 434417
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/434417
ISSN: 0300-4430
PURE UUID: 262977e3-2432-46b5-b180-2f8dacceabb0
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Date deposited: 23 Sep 2019 16:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:53
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Author:
Amanda Norman
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