The 'Telling Stories' Project : a case series study of narrative interaction between children who use speech generating devices and their educational staff

• Main Author: Bailey, Pippa
• Published: University of East Anglia 2013
• Subjects: 610
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.642982

Story-telling is important to child language development and plays a critical role within the English National Curriculum. Children who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) have limited opportunities to develop narrative compared to their typically developing peers. The current study aimed to explore narrative construction in communicative dyads comprising an aided speaker (AS) and natural speaker (NS). A case series design was employed to investigate narrative interactions of children who use AAC with a familiar member of teaching staff. The sample comprised four children, two with cerebral palsy, one with autistic spectrum disorder and one with a genetic condition. Data collection took place at the school attended by each participant. Video capture was used to record one personal and one fictional narrative in four separate data collection sessions with each dyad. Data were transcribed using standard orthography. Three dependent variables were investigated: communicative modality, linguistic move-type and linguistic complexity. A subsidiary study was completed to test the reliability of Momentary Time Sampling in coding interactional data. The findings revealed multimodal contributions from both interlocutors. Speech was the dominant modality for all NS participants. Communicative modality use was more varied for the AS. NS participants assumed a more dominant, initiating role. Analysis highlighted patterns of frequent directives, such as instructions and w-question and yes/no question employed by the NS followed by AS responses during narrative interaction. However, some miscommunication between interlocutors was also recorded. Narrative interaction was found to follow the educational initiation-response feedback framework, although there was evidence of the AS and NS working together to construct narrative. Implications include the need for NS scaffolding within education to support AS access to narrative language. The case series serves to illustrate some of the challenges associated with narrative production for children who use AAC and the associated relevance of the NS’ role.