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Using Digital Stories for assessments and transition planning for autistic pre-school children

Using Digital Stories for assessments and transition planning for autistic pre-school children
Using Digital Stories for assessments and transition planning for autistic pre-school children
Aims: ‘I am…’ Digital Stories are short videos designed to provide a holistic, strengths-based representation of the child through enabling them to contribute their perspectives to transition planning. Digital Stories have potential during periods in which professionals are unable to physically visit settings or spend time getting to know a child. This paper describes the use of Digital Stories in two contexts: (1) being shown at the beginning of person-centred planning meetings focusing on the transition to primary school and (2) as a tool to support educational psychologists conducting Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessments for preschool children during COVID-19.

Method: data was collected via seven semi-structured interviews, 15 feedback forms, and videos of four meetings. Participants comprised six parents/carers, five nursery practitioners, three school staff members, and six educational psychologists. Thematic analysis resulted in five main themes: thinking differently; a wider conversation; more than words; seeing what they see; and potential barriers to making Digital Stories.

Limitations: children were not able to make their own Digital Stories, which could have influenced their representation within the videos, transition meetings and assessments. However, children’s body worn camera footage was included, enabling a perspective on their interactions and preferences that was closer to the child’s worldview than other observational methods.

Conclusions: Digital Stories have a variety of benefits to practice, including being useful to educational psychologists during assessments, and have the potential to facilitate successful transitions from nursery to primary school.
Autism, Covid-19, Digital Stories, Early years, Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA), Transition planning
0267-1611
62-74
Wood-Downie, Henry
3ea6dda6-516f-4bc8-9854-186540fb30e0
Ward, Verity Charlie Stone
054f98ae-5b6b-4f13-ac59-479244a5a910
Ivil, Kathryn
6d5740c0-f3f6-4fd6-8acc-5f0db08b2f01
Kovshoff, Hanna
82c321ee-d151-40c5-8dde-281af59f2142
Parsons, Sarah
5af3382f-cda3-489c-a336-9604f3c04d7d
Wood-Downie, Henry
3ea6dda6-516f-4bc8-9854-186540fb30e0
Ward, Verity Charlie Stone
054f98ae-5b6b-4f13-ac59-479244a5a910
Ivil, Kathryn
6d5740c0-f3f6-4fd6-8acc-5f0db08b2f01
Kovshoff, Hanna
82c321ee-d151-40c5-8dde-281af59f2142
Parsons, Sarah
5af3382f-cda3-489c-a336-9604f3c04d7d

Wood-Downie, Henry, Ward, Verity Charlie Stone, Ivil, Kathryn, Kovshoff, Hanna and Parsons, Sarah (2021) Using Digital Stories for assessments and transition planning for autistic pre-school children. Educational and Child Psychology, 38 (3), 62-74.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Aims: ‘I am…’ Digital Stories are short videos designed to provide a holistic, strengths-based representation of the child through enabling them to contribute their perspectives to transition planning. Digital Stories have potential during periods in which professionals are unable to physically visit settings or spend time getting to know a child. This paper describes the use of Digital Stories in two contexts: (1) being shown at the beginning of person-centred planning meetings focusing on the transition to primary school and (2) as a tool to support educational psychologists conducting Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessments for preschool children during COVID-19.

Method: data was collected via seven semi-structured interviews, 15 feedback forms, and videos of four meetings. Participants comprised six parents/carers, five nursery practitioners, three school staff members, and six educational psychologists. Thematic analysis resulted in five main themes: thinking differently; a wider conversation; more than words; seeing what they see; and potential barriers to making Digital Stories.

Limitations: children were not able to make their own Digital Stories, which could have influenced their representation within the videos, transition meetings and assessments. However, children’s body worn camera footage was included, enabling a perspective on their interactions and preferences that was closer to the child’s worldview than other observational methods.

Conclusions: Digital Stories have a variety of benefits to practice, including being useful to educational psychologists during assessments, and have the potential to facilitate successful transitions from nursery to primary school.

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Wood-Downie et al (2021) Using Digital Stories for assessments and transition planning ECP Author accepted - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 3 May 2021
Published date: 16 September 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: We would like to thank all the parents/ carers and professionals who took part in the study, the Aviary Nursery for compiling the videos, as well as the children for whom they were made. This research was funded by the University of Southampton?s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account funding. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, British Psychological Society. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Autism, Covid-19, Digital Stories, Early years, Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA), Transition planning

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 449156
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/449156
ISSN: 0267-1611
PURE UUID: 3c9741c3-ab2d-4d71-aaa2-9c1525ad2c67
ORCID for Verity Charlie Stone Ward: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1921-2030
ORCID for Hanna Kovshoff: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6041-0376
ORCID for Sarah Parsons: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2542-4745

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 18 May 2021 16:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:53

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Contributors

Author: Kathryn Ivil
Author: Hanna Kovshoff ORCID iD
Author: Sarah Parsons ORCID iD

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