From Interaction to Formal Language
Becoming the Excellent Observer and Thoughtful Communicator with Children who are Congenitally Deafblind
This Special Education Professional Renewal Graduate Course allows for graduate credit tied to attendance at this conference, which is presented in collaboration with ACVREP and the Colorado Department of Education.
During this two-day, interactive conference we will explore ideas and questions for the adult interaction partner of congenitally deafblind learners with emerging language. Human interaction begins in infancy. From when baby and mother share a moment’s gaze. Human interaction is the basis for social exchange, the exchange of information, of ideas, of emotions. Human Interaction is conversation, both spoken and unspoken. Human interaction is the foundation for well-being and quality of life.
How do we join the person who is deafblind in sharing their world, a world experienced through touch? How do we arouse curiosity? What is the path to bonding? Why must we recognize and affirm communication before a meaningful, mutually understood language can be co-created?
We all have an inner voice of “self-talk.” What is this voice if you are congenitally deafblind and cannot easily access the visual, auditory world around you? Is your experience processed and recorded as internal tactile-bodily sensations? How do images, sounds and voices exist in your mind as thought and language? What if you do not have an empathetic partner who is attuned to your tactile-bodily experience of the world? A partner who you share with. A partner who helps you to make meaning of and put language to your experiences.
Course is graded Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory. Syllabus
