Exploring children’s responses to interpersonal conflict using bubble dialogue in a mainstream and EBD school

Abstract

This paper discusses an investigation of the use of a computer application, Bubble Dialogue, to construct a narrative which reflects the child’s view of the world. In particular it reports on a comparative study of how a group of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and children who attend a mainstream school use Bubble Dialogue to express themselves and the strategies used by the children to resolve interpersonal conflicts. The results show that both groups of children were able to make good use of the thought/speech distinction which is a special feature of Bubble Dialogue, and both groups made disclosures, but there were differences in the type of disclosures made. Analysis of conflict resolution strategies revealed that both groups could used a range of strategies but the pattern of preference differed between the groups. In particular the children with emotional and behavioural difficulties issued more orders and resorted to physical aggression. It is suggested that Bubble Dialogue may therefore be a good tool for practitioners to use to reveal children’s perspectives and also for the children themselves to rehearse more appropriate and effective conflict resolution strategies.