Ho, Hui Jun;
(2023)
The friendships and social relationships of students with complex communication needs in and outside of special school settings.
Doctoral thesis (D.Ed.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Friendships and social relationships are central to our wellbeing, where those with wider and closer networks have better mental and physical health. However, the friendships of those with the most complex needs are often ignored. This study explored the friendships and social relationships of students with complex communication needs (CCN) in and outside of special school settings, to understand how they view and experience them and how to facilitate them. 20 participants – six students, eight of their parents and six of their teachers/teaching assistants took part in the research. The research was carried out in two stages – stage 1 included semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers and unstructured observations of students in class and at breaktimes. Stage 2 included direct work with students through a Mosaic approach, using six participatory tools – pyramid ranking activity, preferred activity with friends cards, best friends activity, school tours, collections from home and book-making. A reflexive thematic analysis approach was employed to analyse the data. The findings included eight themes – three student themes, three themes across parent and teacher data, one parent theme and one teacher theme. Findings suggested 1) students with CCN know their friends best, 2) friendships are maintained through a connection that goes beyond words, where meaningful social contact is enacted through aspects of the human experience located outside of language, 3) reciprocity in friendships means no distinction between ‘helper’ and ‘needing help’, 4) barriers include communication limitations and the protectiveness of parents 5) parents facilitate friendships through dedication to their students’ social lives and sticking within their communities, and 6) teachers facilitate friendships through structured and incidental friendship opportunities alongside an inclusive school ethos. Strengths and limitations are highlighted. Implications for practice for Educational Psychologists, schools and curriculum developers and policy planners, including directions for future research, are discussed.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Ed.Psy |
| Title: | The friendships and social relationships of students with complex communication needs in and outside of special school settings |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10174332 |
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