Exploring participation experiences of youth who use AAC in social media settings: impact of an e-mentoring intervention

Abstract

The contribution of cross-age peer e-mentoring on reported experiences of participation during online conversations using social media was explored in this pre-experimental study. Young people (n = 4, aged 13; 4–18;3 [years; months]) who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) participated in an e-mentoring intervention. Two mentors who also used AAC had regular conversations with the participants via Facebook¹, email, or Skype². It was predicted that the mentoring support would contribute to experiences of participation in online conversations outside of the e-mentoring intervention. Reported experiences of participation in online conversations with communication partners other than the mentor were measured at four time points. The Self-Reported Experiences of Activity Settings was used for this purpose because it consists of five domains: Personal Growth, Psychological Engagement, Social Belonging, Meaningful Interactions, and Choice and Control. These domains are associated with the construct of involvement in activity settings. Results showed varied scores between participants and across the domains. Reported experiences of choice and control increased slightly across time. Despite some variation in self-ratings, the participants reported experiencing choice and control, psychological engagement, and social belonging in online conversations. There is need for more research in this emerging area.

Keywords:

• Augmentative and alternative communication
• complex communication needs
• cross-age peer mentoring
• e-mentoring
• intervention
• participation
• social media

Acknowledgements

The first author completed this work during her doctoral studies under the supervision of the other three authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Facebook is a social networking platform. www.facebook.com.

2 Skype is a social networking platform. www.skype.com

3 Gmail is an email platform. www.gmail.com, www.outlook.com

4 i-message is a product of Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA. www.apple.com

5 Instagram is a social networking platform. www.instagram.com

6 Mail is a product of Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA. www.apple.com

7 Outlook is an email platform. www.gmail.com, www.outlook.com

8 The SEAS-PCS is available at https://flintbox.com/public/project/25724/

9 PCS is a product of the Mayer-Johnson, a Tobii Dynavox Company, Pittsburgh, PA. www.tobiidynavox.com

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a NHMRC Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship, as co-funded by the Research Foundation, Cerebral Palsy Alliance under Grant [APP1093858]; and a Project Grant awarded by the auDA Foundation under Grant [14062].