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COACTIVE
SIGNING
Definition
Physical
guidance of the child’s hand(s) to facilitate production
of a standard manual sign for expressive communication.
Purpose
To
encourage the use of signs as expressive communication for the
child who is blind or deaf-blind.
Examples
- Three-year-old
Mariko is sitting in the swing. She shakes her legs when the
swing stops. Her big brother takes her hands and helps her sign
MORE (coactive signing) while saying "OK, you want to swing
some more. I’ll push you."
- Ten-year-old
Carlos is sitting at the lunch table. He searches for his milk
carton on the tray but cannot find it, so he touches his teacher.
She helps Carlos sign MILK (coactive signing) and then says
"The milk is on the counter, go get it" while she
signs MILK ON COUNTER GET IT as Carlos feels her hand movements
(tactile signing).
Considerations
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1.
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The
communication partner and child should be positioned so that
they are both comfortable and able to produce signs. |
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2.
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Because
the communication partner may vary in relationship to the
child (i.e., beside the child, in front of the child, or behind
the child), he or she should remember to facilitate sign production
from the child’s perspective. Care should be taken to
consider the child’s dominant hand in the production
of signs. |
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3.
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Communication
partners should differentiate between communication input
to the child and output of the child and use coactive signs
only to facilitate the child’s expressive communication
(output). |
Advantages
- Children
who are visually impaired or who are not visually attentive
can kinesthetically feel signs being made tactilely. This may
help in the child’s independent production of signs.
- Coactive
signing provides the child with a tactile- kinesthetic model
for promoting expressive communication.
Disadvantages
- Coactive
signing may be used inappropriately and confused with tactile
signing.
- Coactive
signing may not be effective for children who do not like their
hands to be held and manipulated or who are limited in arm and
hand movements.
- Over
use of coactive signing may result in some children being dependent
on physical prompts to produce signs.
- Children
may have difficulty differentiating between messages from a
communication partner (input) and when communication partner
is facilitating the child’s response (output). A child
will be confused if coactive signs are used for both receptive
and expressive communication purposes.
- In
coactive signing, communication partners may confuse the direction
and movements of a sign and produce the sign from their own
perspectives and not from the child’s perspective.
- Communication
partners may reverse signs by using their dominant hands to
mold the child’s nondominant hand to produce a sign. This
reversal be confusing and lead to the child’s incorrect
production of the sign.
- Not
all manual signs can be produced accurately in a non-visual
manner coactively, (e.g., signs that require finger movements
such as WAIT).
Source
Coactive
Signing represents a synthesis of information from Project
SALUTE’s focus groups, National Advisory Co, staff activities,
and a review of relevant literature such as the following bibliography.
Click
Here for Examples
Bibliography
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