發現「遲緩兒童」：科學認知、權力技術與社會秩序

Discovering the 'Developmentally Delayed': Scientific Knowledge, Power Techniques and Social Ordering

早期療育制度在1990年代正式引入台灣，使得「發展遲緩」作為新的身體類屬，成為必須儘早介入的對象。短短十餘年間，對遲緩兒童的發現工作集結成一個跨越多重社會界──整合社政、幼教／托、醫療、家長──的監管網絡，藉由各種科學技術物的中介，使兒童發展成為可見的、從而是可治理的對象。本文採用科學與社會秩序共同生成(co-production)的分析取向，從發展遲緩概念的移入與意義爭奪、科學主張與技術工具的使用，以及監管網絡的集結與穩定化等三個層次，來解明這個對兒童身體的新認知形式，集體發展凝視與跨界監管網絡如何相互構成。特別是科學知識與技術工具的角色，一方面徵召行動者參與監管並作為架接集體合作的基礎，另一方面，它們的效力與適當性，也是歷經在地的文化適應與社會協商的產物。藉由各種銘刻著發展知識的科技物、監管網絡的建制及其實作的例行化，每個孩童都被視為具有發展遲緩的風險，對早期童年身體的種種治理策略，也從而被正當化。

An 'Early Intervention' program was introduced formally into Taiwan in the 1990s, while making 'developmentally delayed' a new category for identifying early childhood bodies to offer necessary health and education services. During less than two decades, a developmental surveillance network has been built across many different social worlds. Almost every child under age six is incorporated into this network of visibility. This research takes a co-production approach to elaborate this complex process, interweaving cognitive, cultural, social, political, and techno-scientific elements. Rather than giving causal priority to techno-science or society, I illustrate how the specific body images of early childhood and its material embodiments, and a surveillance network to collectively gaze upon children's development, have been co-produced. Besides constructing normalcy and disciplining normalization, science and technology can enlist different actors, including kindergarten and nursery school teachers, pediatricians and nurses, social workers, and parents, to engage in developmental surveillance and make sure their jobs remain coherent and consistent. However, these knowledge claims and technical objects have no inherent validity and reliability, which were at once products of social network and constitutive of forms of social life.