Presented by: Hilary Berbach

Text Messaging as a Form of Communication for One Individual

with Limited Verbal Skills

Research QuestionIn what ways does Tom, my brother with limited verbal skills, use text messaging to communicate?

Purpose of the Study Having a conversation with my

brother was very hard for both my brother and our family. He struggled to get the words out, as well as we struggled to understand what he was saying

To see if text-messaging can be used as a new form of assistive technology for students who have limited verbal skills

Supporting Literature Text messaging has become one of the most important and popular forms of communication in our society today (Pilling & Barrett, 2007; Holtgraves, 2010; Sweeny, 2010; Okuyama & Iwai, 2011).

Studies have found that people prefer to use text messaging because of the ease of use that text messaging provides, as well as the convenience it provides when sending a quick, short text message to fellow peers (Pilling & Barrett, 2007; Holtgraves, 2010; Fintan & Culwin, 2005)

Supporting Literature Text-Messaging provides its users access to a two-way channel to communication without ever having to use one’s voice to communicate (Geng, 2013)

Young adults in the deaf community used text messaging because it allowed them the independence from their anxious parents who were worried about their ability to navigate the hearing world (Akamatsu, Mayer & Farrelly, 2005)

ParticipantsTom 27-year-old Caucasian male with

Down Syndrome. middle child from an upper- middle

class family. a high school diploma and has

attended a four- year college experience program.

lives in an apartment with one other peer and has one person come in to check on him each day for a few hours.

His parents are still very involved in his life and are the reason why Tom started using text messaging to communicate with them on a daily basis.

ParticipantsSusanTom’s mother 61-year-old Caucasian

female, who lives an upper-middle class lifestyle

a retired librarian from a local rural high school

first started communicating with Tom via text messaging three years ago

Data Sources Observation and field notes

Took condensed field notes (Spradley & Baker, 1980) while watching Tom text

Text-Message Artifacts

Collected from Tom and Susan

Data Analysis Open Coding (Corbin & Strauss,

2008) - Codes included: text messages used to tell something text messages used to convey emotion or feelings text messages used to ask a question or make a request text messages used to check in with Susan text messages used to respond to direct questions or requests

FindingsTom used text messaging to tell Susan something

Tom told Susan that he is going to day habilitation tomorrow Susan replied back to him telling him to set his alarm and go to bed early. Tom told his mom about his plans for the next morning.

Findings Tom conveyed an urgent message repeatedly

Tom told his mother that he had no money, so he needed his dad to come to his house to buy him lunch the next day

Susan’s reply to Tom showed that she understood his basic need and planned to act by sending Toms father to his house to see about money for lunch the next day.

Tom sent the text message three times, signifying that this was an important request that should not be ignored

Findings Tom used text messages

to convey an emotion. Conveying emotion was

something that was very rare to hear Tom say in person or over the phone because of his limited verbal abilities

Text messages allowed to see the emotional side of her son

Findings Tom used text messages to ask a question or make a request

Tom could have asked to go to the baseball game in person or over the phone

He chose to send this text message requesting to go

showing his preference to text messaging then speaking the question out loud in person or over the phone because of his limited verbal skills.

Findings Tom used text messages to “check in” with others

Check-in was a way for Tom to say good night to his mother or to tell her that he will see her tomorrow

Findings Tom used text messages to a direct question or request.

Tom replied back to his father’s request via his mother, Susan

Tom responding with “after,” suggesting that calling his dad before the show does not work for him

He needed to convey to his that he would call him after the show was done, so that his parents were not worried about him when he missed calling before the show began.

Tom chose to text his answer back to Susan’s question showing his preference for texting over calling because of his limited verbal abilities.

ReferencesAkamatsu, C.T., Mayer, C., & Farrelly, S. (2005). An investigation of two-way text messaging use with deaf students at the secondary level. Oxford University Press.

Corbin, J.M., & Strauss, A.L. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage Publications, Inc.

Fintan, X., & Culwin, F. (2005). When fingers do the talking: A study of text messaging. Interacting With Computers, 17(2) 167-185.

Geng, G. (2012). Investigating the use of text messages in mobile learning. Active Learning in Higher Education, 14(1) 77-87.

Holtgraves, T. (2010). Text messaging personality, and the social context. Journal of Research in Personality, 45, 92-99.

Okuyama, Y., & Iwai, M. (2011). Use of text messaging by deaf adolescents in Japan. Sign Language Studies, 11(3) 375-407.

Pilling, D., &Barrett, P. (2007). Text communication preferences of deaf people in the United Kingdom. Oxford University Press.

Spradley, J.P., & Baker, K. (1980). Participant observation. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New Y ork.

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