Effects of workshops about storytelling through children's books realized with deaf children relatives

Abstract:

PURPOSE:

analyzing the storytelling strategies of deaf children relatives, through children's books, before and after workshops with a speech and language therapist.

METHODS:

a descriptive/exploratory qualitative research was developed with families attending a school clinic of a federal public university. At the first moment of this research, the patients' medical charts were analyzed. At a second moment, video recordings of the relative-child dyads were made while telling stories through deaf children's books. At a third, the families participated in workshops about playing and storytelling presented by a speech and language therapist. After the workshops, new video recordings of the dyads telling stories were made. Data were transcribed and subjected to video analysis as well as the dyads' eyes directions were computed.

RESULTS:

three adults and three children took part of this study. After the workshops, there were significant changes in the storytelling strategies of the children's relatives. They employed intonation variation, used onomatopoeia, body signals such as facial expressions, movements and touches and highlighted the books' illustrations. With respect to eyes' directions, after the workshops the children looked more to the books, and both children and relatives looked more to each other.

CONCLUSION:

after the workshops, there were qualitative changes in the way of storytelling, using storybooks as mediators of the linguistic interaction by the relatives that participated in this study. The resulting effects afforded a more productive participation of the dyads in the language development of the children.

Keywords:
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Deafness; Mother-Child Relations; Reading; Language; Books