“Can I draw Peppa Pig?”: Using creative methods with parents to explore families’ everyday lives and interactions

Parent-child interaction (PCI) interventions are frequently used by speech and language therapists (SLTs), but concerns have been raised about their cultural and ecological validity. Intervention strategies are primarily based on psycholinguistic observations of interactions between white, middle-class mothers and their children. To inform the theory behind PCI interventions, we need to understand more about children’s diverse interactions across contexts.
This study explored children’s everyday communication environments, using a novel combination of audio recordings and creative methods.
Twelve parents and their typically developing child (aged 2.5 – 4 years old) were recruited in Bristol, UK. Recruitment targeted diversity in ethnicity, education and family size. On a day of their choice, parents took photographs of their daily activities, and their child wore an automated recording device. Parents then participated in a qualitative interview, incorporating the following creative methods: ecomaps, timelines and photo elicitation. This study was approved by the University of Bristol Faculty of Health Sciences ethics committee on 10/09/21. In-depth activity analyses of photographs, recording extracts and parent interviews revealed variation in how families engaged in activities, and diversity in the activities that led to opportunities for interaction. Themes arising from parent interviews illustrated a range of internal and external factors affecting everyday activities and interactions, including children’s temperaments, family dynamics, and cultural expectations. We discuss implications of the findings for SLTs, including the value of a socio-cultural approach to PCI interventions. We also consider the potential benefits and challenges of using creative methods with families in clinical practice.