Abstract
Context: This action-research case study used a formative experiment methodological framework to examine how two adolescent boys with learning disabilities engaged with an iPad app to create and share their own digital stories. The boys were African immigrants with English as additional language and severe speech and communication difficulties. Case Report: Video observations of the key steps of the action research cycle and interviews with the boys’ teacher and teaching assistant were analysed using content analysis. Findings revealed that despite having some difficulties with learning some of the functions of the app, the boys were able to communicate their ideas to others, take ownership of the story by deciding on photographs and storylines and develop some social skills by presenting the stories to others in the class. Conclusion: Using the Our Story app was helpful in facilitating a sequential arrangement of the pictures and their annotation with sounds and short captions. Study findings are discussed in relation to using iPad apps with children with severe learning disabilities.
Highlights
Without a doubt, digital technologies play a growing role in the lives of young children, including children with learning and communication disabilities
We showed how the use of an iPad story-making app enabled a girl with complex language and communication difficulties to communicate her feelings to others in the classroom and school [9]
We focus on a specific iPad app called “Our Story”
Summary
Digital technologies play a growing role in the lives of young children, including children with learning and communication disabilities. Children with learning disabilities have historically been early adopters of technology, given that technology is often the only means facilitating these children’s communication and social interaction with others [1]. Our previous findings and several other reports show that iPads and comparable tablets are part of the growing technologymediated communication of children in special education in Western countries. People with disabilities note that iPads may represent a shift in the “deficit discourse” [3], according to which mobile technologies can be used seamlessly and without disruption in everyday activities, including learning in the classroom. The notion that iPads might be supportive of children’s learning involves an understanding of the specific characteristics of iPads and of the “apps”, that is programs which deliver specific content on the devices
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