“When he's around his brothers … he's not so quiet”: The private and public worlds of school-aged children with speech sound disorder

Children interact with people in context: including home, school, and in the community. Understanding children's relationships within context is important for supporting children's development. Using child-friendly methodologies, the purpose of this research was to understand the lives of children with speech sound disorder (SSD) in context. Thirty-four interviews were undertaken with six school-aged children identified with SSD, and their siblings, friends, parents, grandparents, and teachers. Interview transcripts, questionnaires, and children's drawings were analyzed to reveal that these children experienced the world in context dependent ways (private vs. public worlds). Family and close friends typically provided a safe, supportive environment where children could be themselves and participate in typical childhoods. In contrast, when out of these familiar contexts, the children often were frustrated, embarrassed, and withdrawn, their relationships changed, and they were unable to get their message across in public contexts. Speech-language pathology assessment and intervention could be enhanced by interweaving the valuable insights of children, siblings, friends, parents, teachers, and other adults within children's worlds to more effectively support these children in context.Learning outcomes:1.Recognize that children with SSD experience the world in different ways, depending on whether they are in private or public contexts.2.Describe the changes in the roles of family and friends when children with SSD are in public contexts.3.Discover the position of the child as central in Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model.4.Identify principles of child-friendly research.5.Recognize the importance of considering the child in context during speech-language pathology assessment and intervention.

► Insights were gained by interviewing children, their friends, siblings, teachers, parents and grandparents.
► Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of development in context was applied.
► Children with speech sound disorder engage differently with others in private vs. public contexts.
► Professionals’ “listening ears” need to be attuned to children in context.