tips for filming signing children in naturalistic settings

[Schola Lam]

Hi Louise,

I have filmed some deaf children in Hong Kong before. You have mentioned some potential problems like they may turn their back to the camera. In other times, they may be curious about the camera. When they are too close to the camera, their torso cannot be filmed. 

Some children are camera-sensitive, they would stop signing once they noticed that the DV camcorders are on. Sometimes it is also due to the presence of the camera operators. I have tried to hide somewhere out of a child's sight and then the child began to smile and sign. One possible solution is to ask someone in the family to help (if they know how to film).

Hope these helps. :-)

Scholastica



 



Lou de B <luisitadb at optusnet.com.au> wrote:   tips for filming signing children in naturalistic settings  Hi all,
 I’m about to start filming some children with deaf parents (the children are mostly deaf themselves) and wanted to get some tips from people who have done so recently. I haven’t collected naturalistic data before of a large quantity so would like some hints about potential problems, or good ideas. The situation is that the family will set up two cameras at a time that suits them and film the children (aged 1 to about 6 or 7 years old, only 1 or2 children per family) for an hour or so. The data will be normal interactions between the family members, such as meal time, story time etc.
 
 I remember from a small amount of data collection I did in a naturalistic setting as an undergraduate:
 
   trying to get the child roughly in the corner of the room so they were less likely to turn their back to the camera 
   trying to find games that weren’t too active (that would have the child jumping) 
   avoiding playing with objects so they weren’t preoccupied/distracted and so their hands were free to sign 
   as well as all the usuals of well lit, well filmed etc.
 

 Any advice greatly appreciated. 
 
 Louise de B.
 
 
 --  
 Dr Louise de Beuzeville  
 ARC Post-doctoral Fellow
 Signed Language Linguistics Group
 Department of Linguistics
 MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY NSW 2109
 
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