The effectiveness of Colourful Semantics on narrative skills in children with intellectual disabilities in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

Children diagnosed with intellectual difficulties experience difficulties with narrative skills, due to limited syntactic knowledge. The Colourful Semantics approach with thematic roles and a colour coding system may encourage syntactic development in children experiencing intellectual disabilities. To evaluate the effectiveness of using the Colourful Semantics approach to develop narrative skills in Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking children diagnosed with intellectual difficulties. Thirty Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking children identified with intellectual difficulties were included. The Colourful Semantics approach was offered twice a week for 6 weeks, facilitated by the class teachers. Pre- and post-intervention narrative skill assessments were undertaken and analysed for content and syntactic structures. The results indicate positive changes post-intervention on the qualitative and quantitative narrative skills measures undertaken on content and syntactic structures. The Colourful Semantics approach is an effective therapy approach to support development of narrative skills in children with intellectual difficulties.