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Not being a pyscologist but having to infer this from first principles I would suppose the following hypothesis That lacking feedback from conversation, and not having the otheres speech patterns in order to modify ones own speech to what might be mutually appropriate, one defaults to something else by assuming that the usual experience of communicating with one who is non verbal, is with one who is pre verbal. Does that make any sence? -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ken Robey, Ph.D. Sent: 03 July 2000 19:46 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Infantilization of persons with disabilities At our facility which serves persons with cerebral palsy, Lesch-Nyhan disease, and other neurodevelopmental disorders, we have been training medical students and other healthcare professionals-in-training to interact effectively with their patients who are nonverbal due to developmental disorders. In that process, we constantly observe the medical students adopting a high pitched tone of voice and child-like manner of speech even when the students are informed that their patients are normal or near normal in cognitive ability. I'm interested in doing a series of studies, involving both voice analysis and measurement of implicit attitudes using the Implicit Association Test, to look at the degree to which healthcare professionals associate disability with child-like characteristics and the degree to which this association might be evidenced in their interactions with patients or prospective patients who have disabilities. I'm sure there must be a literature out there on infantilization of persons with disabilities in social interactions, but I haven't been able to locate it using PsychInfo, Medline, or other databases (at least not with the keywords I've been using). Can anyone suggest a lead or two? Thanks much, Ken Robey Matheny Institute for Research in Developmental Disabilities [log in to unmask]