DIGITAL STORYTELLING CONTRIBUTION TO SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN A CASE OF RUBINSTEIN-TAYBI: a Case Study

Abstract

This investigation focus on the case study carried out with a child with special education needs (SEN), Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome.  Our goal is to confirm if the construction of digital stories with Little Bird Tales online software enhances the speech development of the child and how it occurs. The results point out to a set of positive outcomes, though they do not result only from the work carried out by building digital stories with the student. Indeed, besides the digital literacy followed up as a consequence of the intensive use of digital means, there was a vocabulary increase as well as an improvement of the child’s speech which became gradually more clearly and was recognized by the student himself; higher interaction with the peers, teachers, family and investigator; development of the capacity of previewing the following steps while doing the tasks; a light positive change regarding the body posture, namely face expression; body expression and less panting breathing. Finally, but not least, the student’s evolution regarding his motivation to learn and to cooperate with his peers, teachers and family.

KEYWORDS: Key-words: Digital literacy; Special Education Needs; educational software; digital storytelling; speech.