Participant: Kathleen Forsythe
Affiliation: SelfDesign Learning Community, British Columbia Canada
Format: Presentation and Conversation
Themes: recursion, praxis

Notions of languaging that arise from the Biology of Cognition, reveal several orders of recursion that emerge in the process of learning to speak. What happens when a child’s neurological structure differs significantly enough such that the typical patterns of language development do not follow the traditional path? This presentation will present some ideas based on a case study of a child who does not speak yet is passing through these orders of recursion in a longer manner than a typical child. What kind of learning environment is needed to best support such a child’s unique needs. Indeed, from a bioethical perspective, how can we tailor educational programs to each child’s nervous system.