ABSTRACT
The Treasure Basket, When an Aboriginal mother notices the first stirrings of speech in her child; she lets it handle the things of that particular country: leaves, fruit, insects and so forth. This chapter introduces the Treasure Basket to parents, practitioners and babies; Whats in the basket; First steps in decision-making; the adults role; Questions and answers about the use of the basket; Collecting items for the basket. The Treasure Basket is specifically designed for a particular age group: babies aged six to nine months, who are sitting up but not yet independently mobile. The idea for the Treasure Basket grew out of Elinors close observation of hundreds of babies over many years. Babies differ greatly in the speed with which they attain independent movement, and by eight or nine months some will already be making first attempts at crawling and beginning to move about, while others are still at the rolling and squirming stage.
