Photographs of children vocalising into their hands.
At the time of taking these photos I did not think to record exactly
what the child was doing, so now I am unsure. For a time I thought
that Caroline in picture 2 was in the process of patting her cheeks,
to make a sound, but comparison with Amanda, in the first picture,
with an almost identical position of head, arms and hands, would
suggest that she was in fact vocalising into her hands. (Amanda
did engage in hand vocalising, but not cheek patting; Caroline did
both)
Here the child vocalises into her hands, which are held up just in
front of her face, using actual words, or mere non-articulated sounds,
if she cannot talk.
She is communicating with, pretending to talk
to, her parents.
Not only is she talking, (or 'talking' to them),
but they can 'talk' back to her. The feeling of the 'presence' of
the parents with the child, in the child's hands, is strengthened by
the auditory-vocal dimension:-
the echo of the child's voice from the
palms of her hands represents the parent talking to the child.
GO BACK TO 'LOOKING AT HANDS 2'