‘The Story in a Box’: measuring the online communication behaviours of children identified as having emotional and behavioural difficulties using LENA and Noldus Observer

Abstract

There is evidence for co-occurrence of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) and communication/language difficulties in children. Our research investigated the feasibility of vocalisation technology, its combination with observational software and the efficacy of a novel coding scheme and assessment technique. It aimed to investigate children’s online verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviours. Two techniques were employed: Language Environment Analysis (LENA) and behaviour coding (Noldus Observer). These were trialled with children during an interactive task developed for the study: ‘The Story in a Box’. The participants were 14 children, aged 4–7 years; 7 typically developing (TD), 7 with SEBD. There was a statistically significant difference between counts of child vocalisations and conversational turns from children with SEBD and trends in the nature of verbal and non-verbal behaviour used by TD and SEBD children. The research concluded that LENA and Observer can be used effectively with children with SEBD. TD and SEBD children present differences in communicative ability.

Keywords:

• emotional and behavioural difficulties
• language
• communication
• behaviour

Acknowledgements

The researchers wish to thank the children and their families and schools for consenting to be involved in the project. The first author also wishes to thank the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council for a PhD studentship award.