Hypotheses that may explain observed interaction patterns

Three hypotheses may explain the general patterns of interaction described between young children with cerebral palsy and their caregivers that are not linked with children's additional learning difficulties. The first is the readability hypothesis, described in its application to non-disabled children in the previous chapter, the second is the cognition

hypothesis and the third is the hypothesis of physical dependence.

To briefly recap, the readability hypothesis suggests that parents and their children both need to produce clear and interpretable (readable) signals that their partners can predict in interaction (Dunst, 1985; Goldberg, 1977). If infants produce signals that their parents can recognise and interpret, the parents are likely to react in a similar manner to the repeated signal, and the infants are likely to learn to predict that response. By developing these contingent reactions the infants and their parents acquire a feeling of efficacy about their interaction. The readability hypothesis seeks to explain the patterns of maternal dominance and child responsiveness seen in interaction between mothers and their

physically disabled children in the children's production of signals that are difficult for parents to read. Children with cerebral palsy may have difficulties producing communication signals (gestural, vocal or verbal) that are consistent over time The signals may differ in range of movement and precision of movement, and may take varying amounts of time to start and complete. Consequently, messages that children intend to be the same may look very different to parents, and parents may react differently to them. Thus, the children may have difficulty establishing signals that are consistent and readable, the parents may have difficulty interpreting the signals and may respond in an unpredictable manner, and both partners may begin to feel helpless with regards to interaction. This difficulty may start from the very beginnings o f interaction, with problems in establishing mutual gaze and signalling readiness for social interaction through head orientation, as well as affecting the later production of gestural and vocal signals for intentional communication. Thus, there may not be a period in which interaction is satisfactory for parents or infants. The application of the readability hypothesis with severely disabled children is represented in Figure 2 over.

It is possible that parents adapt their interaction to gain some feeling of efficacy about their conversations with their children. They may offer their children only communication opportunities in which they can predict their children's signals. However, as the number o f signals that the parents can interpret may be very limited, the range of opportunities they can engineer for their children may be very restricted. For example, parents may be most secure in reading their children's yes/no responses and may set up situations in which the children have the opportunity to use only this communicative fiinction. The cognition

Figure 2 The model of readability: physically disabled children

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The Cognition Hypothesis

To develop effective communication signals children must be able to associate the production of their signal with a caregiver's response. It has been suggested that repeated pairings of a behaviour and a predictable response is necessary if learning of the power of communication signals is to occur ;

it (the child) must remember the repeated occurrences of the

contingency so that when it reflects upon the history of interactions with the caregiver, it perceives the characteristic themes that permit it to develop a conception of the adult as predictable and itself as efficacious (Lamb, 1981, pp 160).

It is possible that physically disabled children do not develop a full range of communication skills because of the restricted range of communication opportunities with which they are presented (explained by either the readability or the physical dependence hypothesis). For example, they may try to produce a request for information but the signal may not be recognised by their parents, who in turn may not react in the manner desired by the children. Following a second attempt to produce a request the children's parents may still not recognise the intention of the communication signal and may react in a different way than they did to the first request. Hence, the children may not be able to learn an association between their signals and a response and may not acquire a full range of communication signals. Children's learning of only the skills they have the opportunity to practice in conversation and to which they receive predictable replies forms the basis of the cognition hypothesis, which can be applied in conjunction with either the hypothesis of readability or physical dependence to explain the patterns of interaction observed for physically disabled children.

hypothesis proposes that children learn those skills that they have frequent opportunities to practice and develop, and for which they receive positive reward (adapted from Lamb, 1981; von Tetzchner, 1988). This hypothesis and the readability hypothesis would suggest that if children do attempt to produce other communication signals and their parents do not recognise these signals, and hence respond in different and unpredictable ways, the children will not be likely to make further attempts, and a full range of communication skills will not be developed

The hypothesis of physical dependency places importance on the presence of a motor impairment, rather than the intelligibility of communication signals. The motor impairments of cerebral palsy affect children's physical ability to manipulate objects, to play independently and to undertake activities associated with daily living. As children may not be able to function independently in many situations parents may need to physically assist their children in most activities, leading to the more frequent proximal interaction that has been observed (Brooks-Gunn & Lewis, 1984; Hanzlik & Stevenson, 1986). The habits of assisting their children, which may include some degree of control and telling children when and how to do things, may spread from general physical assistance to conversation, and hence patterns of adult dominance of conversation and high levels of commands may arise (Barrera & Vella, 1987; Kogan, 1980). High levels of commands may also be observed in mothers' speech not because they are assisting their children, but because they wish to stimulate their children to produce more physical activity in general, which they perceive to be lacking in their child's development (Bell, 1971). Both of these explanations of why mothers are observed to use many commands and to dominate conversation place the emphasis on the presence of a physical disability, rather than the

children's ability to produce intelligible communication signals. The cognition hypothesis also applies to limitations on conversation that may arise from the physical dependence hypothesis, as they too may prevent the children from developing a full range of communication skills.

In document The Communication Skills of Severely Physically Disabled Children (Page 53-58)