What Counts as a Voice? Working alongside non-verbal participants with Hannah McCormack

<p>What does it mean to listen to a child who does not communicate through conventional speech?</p><p>In this episode of <em>The Phenomenology Collective</em>, we explore how phenomenology can help us encounter experiences expressed beyond words.</p><p>We’re joined by Hannah McCormack, a final-year PhD researcher at the University of Dundee whose hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the voices and lived experiences of very young children with special educational needs and disabilities. Drawing on more than 20 years in early years education, Hannah challenges the assumption that an absence of speech means an absence of voice.</p><p>Together, we discuss:</p><ul><li>How gesture, movement, gaze and touch can communicate meaning</li></ul><ul><li>The difference between hearing a child and genuinely listening</li><li>Using hermeneutic phenomenology with non-verbal participants</li><li>The importance of time, familiarity and attentive presence</li><li>The role of parents and practitioners in interpretation</li><li>Navigating consent, assent and ethical inclusion</li><li>Remaining open and methodologically rigorous when conventional interviews are not possible</li></ul><p><br></p><p>This conversation invites us to reconsider what counts as voice—and whether the real limitation lies not in children’s capacity to communicate, but in how adults have learned to listen.</p>