Tangible digital collaborative storytelling in adolescents with intellectual disability and neurodevelopmental disorders

Abstract

Background: Collaborative storytelling can be a helpful tool to promote cognitive and social skills in adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Aims: The current study aimed to explore the benefits of collaborative storytelling using traditional (TST), digital (DST), and tangible digital (TDST) methodologies.

Materials and methods: Fourteen Spanish students with mild to moderate intellectual disability and other neurodevelopmental comorbid disorders participated in collaborative storytelling sessions in the classroom, following an experimental, mixed, and cross-sectional design. The study comprised three individual assessments of narrative skills and eight collaborative storytelling sessions using different storytelling methodologies. Individual and collaborative stories were videotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analysed for formal and content characteristics. Behaviours and interactions during the collaborative storytelling were analysed for each group and session.

Results: The results show a positive effect of collaboration on students' stories, compared to individual performance, regardless of the methodology used.

Conclusion: Collaboration, technological device handling, and shared storytelling did not present a barrier for the participants.

Keywords: adolescence; cooperative learning; intellectual disability; narrative competence; neurodevelopmental disorders; tangible digital storytelling.