Abstract

Children with complex communication needs (CCN) regularly have barriers to express and discuss emotions, and have fewer opportunities to participate in emotional conversations. The study explores and analyzes the changes after a training program focused on offering an interactive home learning environment that encouraged and modeled emotion-related conversations between a parent and a child with CCN within storybook-reading contexts. An observational design (nomothetic/follow-up/multidimensional) was used to explore and analyze the changes in the communicative interaction around emotions between mother-child. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies were used to provide the child access to emotion-related vocabulary. The training program resulted in the mother providing more opportunities to engage her child in emotional conversations, suggesting that when opportunities and resources to talk about emotions were promoted, the child showed more engagement in emotion-related conversations using his AAC system. The mother–child communicative patterns and behavioral relationships observed during the phases are also presented. This case study illustrates the importance of a primary communication partners’ role in facilitating emotional conversations, and the promising efficacy of a training program implemented in a storybook interactive learning environment to promote conversations about emotion-related events while encouraging children with CCN to learn, explore, express, and discuss emotions.

Highlights

  • Communication and language are essential to understand, express, and adaptively regulate and respond to emotions

  • Initiating emotional discussions amid a heightened emotional state is not ideal (Wilkinson et al, 2021). These assumptions are consistent with studies that indicate the importance of presenting a joyful and comfortable context in teaching practices and its positive relationship in facilitating students’ learning (Schutz and Lanehart, 2002; Willis, 2007; Bueno and Forés, 2018). Another key aspect for an effective interactive learning environment that supports the development of children with or without speech, language, or communication needs is the skills and performance of communication partners (Brinton and Fujiki, 2011; Romski et al, 2011; Kent-Walsh et al, 2015; Mermelshtine, 2017; Biggs et al, 2018; O’Neill et al, 2018)

  • The mother expressed feeling extremely satisfied with the support provided during the program and considered it helpful and very easy to learn emotional communication strategies

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Communication and language are essential to understand, express, and adaptively regulate and respond to emotions. These assumptions are consistent with studies that indicate the importance of presenting a joyful and comfortable context in teaching practices and its positive relationship in facilitating students’ learning (Schutz and Lanehart, 2002; Willis, 2007; Bueno and Forés, 2018) Another key aspect for an effective interactive learning environment that supports the development of children with or without speech, language, or communication needs is the skills and performance of communication partners (Brinton and Fujiki, 2011; Romski et al, 2011; Kent-Walsh et al, 2015; Mermelshtine, 2017; Biggs et al, 2018; O’Neill et al, 2018). This study is part of a larger research project carried out by the first author

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