Coding parent/child interaction as a clinical outcome: a research note

Abstract

This paper presents a video coding system designed as a synthesis of a variety of other methods which is being used as a measurement of clinical outcome. It has been developed for a current study investigating the effectiveness of intervention to improve the language and communication skills of three-year-old language-impaired children and their parents. Five coding categories are used, three relating to the adult input (discourse structure, communicative function and linguistic behaviour) and two to the child input (discourse structure and linguistic behaviour). The coding system is discussed in relation to a series of hypotheses developed for the intervention study.