The impact of a digital speaker on a teacher's interaction with a child with limited functional speech.

This paper describes the impact of the implementation of a digital speaker and teacher training on the quality of a teacher's interaction with an AAC user. The data was obtained by recording and analysing classroom story time interactions. The types of utterances directed at each child in the class, the types of questions used as well as the messages recorded onto the digital speaker were determined for each research phase. There were four major phases in the research, namely, a pre-implementation phase, a post-implementation phase, a post-training phase and a post-withdrawal phase. The results indicated that the implementation of the digital speaker and the training of the teacher resulted in certain changes in the way that the teacher interacted with the AAC user. Utterance types such as answering and imitating were used more frequently after the implementation of the device. There was also a much greater variety in the teacher's use of questions as well as in the messages that were recorded onto the digital speaker after the five training sessions were completed. This study highlighted the importance of formal training for the communication partners of the AAC user. One of the most important communication partners of the school-aged AAC user is the classroom teacher.

Interaction between a teacher and the non-speaking as well as speaking children in the classroom.

This study examined the verbal interactions which occurred between a teacher and two groups of children (children who were non-speaking as well as children who were speaking). Descriptive data, generated by analysing ten lessons, suggested that the teacher's interaction with the children who were non-speaking differed, in terms of quantity and quality. She directed approximately 10% less interaction at each of the three non-speaking children, when compared with the number of interactions that she directed at each of the five speaking children. However, she did not spend an equal amount of time interacting with each of the non-speaking children. Her interaction with the non-speaking children was dominated by questions, attention directing and requesting. Verbalization types, such as answering and imitating did not occur at all in the teacher's interaction with the non-speaking children. This implies that the non-speaking children's learning experiences in the classroom differed from the speaking children's learning experiences. Possible reasons for these discrepancies were proposed, namely that the teacher's attitudes, skill and knowledge played a role, but the non-speaking children's lack of access to communication was also considered to be a factor in determining the amount and type of interaction.