Menjivar Dominguez, J., & Yläneva, K. (2010). A case study of aided story telling: Comparing the Step-by-StepTM with the How was School Today Prototype [Unpublished master’s thesis]. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A395624&dswid=1060
In this study, storytelling interactions are compared between a 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy and his peers in two conditions; in one condition the boy has access to a step-by-step (S-b-S) switch and in the second condition he has access to the How was School Today (HWST) prototype that collects and stores information that is manually entered into the program. In both conditions, the peers oriented to the researcher who was present and to each other in asking and answering researcher elicited questions about the aided speaker’s story. In both conditions, the speaking communication partners directed questions to each other and about the aided speaker, rather than to the aided speaker, which resulted in the aided speaker being less involved in the interaction. When excluded from participation, the aided speaker worked to involve himself in the interaction using embodied resources to align with the communication partner’s topic of conversation, or to call attention to missed eye gazes. Different question types resulted in different levels of engagement from the aided speaker. Device oriented questions (e.g., asking where the aided communicator is looking), combined with joint orientation toward the screen and peer gazes at the aided speaker, resulted in progressivity with shallower content. Peer questions that were prompted by a present adult (e.g., “Remember you can ask him questions.”) led to less involvement by the aided speaker, but spontaneous peer questions resulted in increased participation by the aided speaker.