Adult–child interaction in a BSL nursery — getting their attention!

This paper reports on attention-getting strategies during adult–child interaction in a BSL-language nursery. The data come from a small study conducted at the School of Education at Leeds University, in which deaf children in a Deaf nursery run by Deaf adults were filmed. Deaf adults and deaf children both used waving and tapping to gain attention. Deaf adults used waving strategies more than the children did, while the children used more tapping strategies than the adults did. Additional ways of seeking attention and a range of different types of tapping and waving were identified, providing insights into the different uses of waving and the tapping in different situations. Findings also revealed possible developmental stages in attention-seeking.