JCPSLP Vol 21 No 2 2019 DIGITAL Edition

Table 3. Summary of theme 1 categories with associated illustrative quotations

Theme Category

Group

Student

Illustrative quotations

1

Annie

“I think it’s fun we get to do fun stuff; I like the books.”

1

Bella

“My favourite book was the Tickly Octopus .”

2

Dylan

“ My mum and dad make me laugh. ”

2

Ella

“I remember we’re reading books, and then our last one was Harry the Dirty Dog.”

Passive recall

3

Isaac

“ The Tickly Octopus. ”

3

Harper

“We just read books.”

1

Chloe

“My teacher read the story and we did some predictions about the story.”

1

Chloe

“Sounding the words out.”

2

Dylan

“The teacher read us books.”

3

Grace

“Sometimes we get to make things.”

Active recall

3

Harper

“Playing bingo.”

2

Dylan

[when asked about what happened when books were taken home] “Sit down and read to mum.”

2

Ella

“Sometimes when my mum reads it to me, I just fall asleep on the book.”

2

Faith

“I read it to my Mum.”

Ability to verbalise logistical and academic components of the program

2

Faith

“We get to keep them for a little while and then we’ve got to bring them back.”

Logistics

3

Grace

“... and there wasn’t enough books for everyone.“

3

Isaac

“Somebody didn’t bring their PrepSTART book back.”

it boring when they were required to sit down for long periods of time resulting in a reluctance to participate in the intervention. Although they were aware and conscious of their behaviour, this did not address the immediate problem of disengagement. Conversely, role-play and tangible activities (e.g., bingo) were perceived positively by students. Based on these preliminary findings, when delivering classroom-based interventions, SLPs and educators are recommended to utilise small group work and hands-on learning to improve student engagement. These findings are consistent with those reported by Stephen, Ellis, and Martlew (2010) who found that planned, teacher- directed, small-group activities that included opportunities to physically manipulate objects improved student engagement as measured by systematic classroom teacher observations. Finally, theme three highlights that within a school classroom, students can develop the language skills and behaviour that assist them to act in a socially acceptable way. The transition to school is a critical time for students, as they are required to regulate their behaviour and attention in order to achieve academic success (Portilla, Ballard, Adler, Boyce, & Obradovi ´c, 2014). The students in the current study articulated the importance of behaving in a socially acceptable manner and understood the implications of their behaviour on others. Students did not wish to be perceived negatively or differently among their peers. This is in line with the findings by Garon, Bryson, and Smith (2008) who explain that children must learn to inhibit inappropriate thoughts and actions, and move between different rules and expectations. Therefore, when delivering classroom-based oral language and literacy

programs, it is important for SLPs and other facilitators to make the content of the program and student engagement expectations explicit, as the students are capable of reflecting on their behaviour in this way. Limitations While the findings of this study provide preliminary insights into student participation in classroom-based oral-language interventions, they must be considered with respect to several limitations. The recruitment of participants relied on parents returning written permission forms. This may have excluded students whose parents were not literate or who were not comfortable communicating in the English language. Furthermore, asking classroom teachers to select students to participate in the focus groups may have introduced an additional bias. Future studies should consider alternative methods to participant recruitment as well as additional data collection methods to validate student data; for example, checklists for engagement. However, the findings of this study and the perspectives of children regarding the intervention should be interpreted in a holistic context, taking into account (a) the positive, significant improvements in language and literacy skills of students who participated in the program immediately following the intervention (Lennox et al., 2018), and (b) our previous findings that suggest the success of the program is highly dependent upon the beliefs of the facilitators delivering them (Lennox et al., 2017). Conclusion Overall, the findings of this study have raised several issues relevant to classroom-based intervention for children at risk

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JCPSLP Volume 21, Number 2 2019

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