Study

Results

Comments by AS

Garzia et al. (2014)

3. Results

3.1. Description of children’s and adolescent’s behavior during practice

According to the analysis of children’s and adolescents’ behavior records, four categories of analysis and eight subcategories (in parentheses) were identified: interaction with people (interaction with pairs of Occupational Therapy graduates and interaction with their peers); interaction with materials (manipulation of the objects of the box and participation in the accomplishment of the proposed activity); cognitive abilities (attention in history and imagination); and motivation (animation and curiosity awakened by history).

As for interaction with people, it was verified when the children/adolescents questioned and answered the questions of the graduates and family members, interacted with other children/adolescents, showed the activities performed for team members or other people and talked about their daily lives. Interaction with the couple of undergraduates occurred for 90% of the children/adolescents and the interaction with other children/adolescents, for only 30% of the participants.

The interaction with materials was observed when the children/adolescents used the objects of the box to show to other people, to retell the story with their words or to invent another story, besides helping the couple of undergraduates at the end of the intervention, and 80% of the children/teenagers manipulated the objects in the box (right after the storytelling by the pair of graduates). It was observed that 90% of the children/adolescents were involved in the play activity proposed after the exploration of the materials of the box, performing activities such as painting, confection of objects and collage.

As for cognitive abilities, 100% of the children/adolescents maintained their attention in history, a fact observed through the attentive gaze in the staging and through the changes in the facial expression, coherent with the unfolding of the story, besides, it was noticed that they managed, later, recount the story properly. In relation to the imagination, it was observed in 30% of the children during the exploration of the materials and storytelling, through the use of the account during the representation of scenes and manipulation of the elements of the box (extrapolating the story to daily activities such as bathing, brushing teeth, eating) and/or adding new characters and scenarios.

As to motivation, 80% of the children/adolescents were animated and 60% showed curiosity. The animation was evidenced through smiles and excitement when retelling the story, in the manipulation of the materials and the interaction with the people present. The curiosity occurred through questions of the participants regarding the way of making the box and the characters, ways to carry out the proposed activities, including other types of materials.

3.2. Feelings before and after storytelling

As for the feelings of children and adolescents before and after the story was told, scores were assigned to the feelings expressed by them, the

which varied between 1 (Very sad), 2 (Sad), 3 (happy) and 4 (Very happy).

Of the 20 children/adolescents participating in the study, nine (45%) changed to a happier emotion, 10 (50%) participants remained in the same category of emotion, all of whom were already in a positive emotional state or very cheerful) and only one changed to a sadder emotion (5%) after the Story Box. The participant who remained in a sad emotional state did not interact with other people and was not motivated during the practice. However, the participant who decreased his score, despite interacting with other people and being motivated, changed his emotional state from very cheerful to cheerful (from 4 to 3). Among the participants who improved their scores, 55% interacted with the couple of undergraduates and/or with other children and adolescents and were motivated (showing excitement and curiosity).

Analyzing the results before and after storytelling, it was possible to see that children and adolescents significantly modified their emotional state, with p value equal to 0.0111, as can be seen in Table 1:

The results show that the scores are higher after the intervention with the Story Box. The exact test performed by the binomial distribution indicates a p value of 0.0107, that is, the median pre-intervention scores are significantly lower than the post-intervention scores.

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Bonding during play is important for the recovery of the child (MELO, 2003). During the development of this study, it was verified that the Box of Stories intervention allowed for a positive interaction between the graduates and the children and adolescents through dialogue about the stories told and about the making of the box during the exploration of materials and execution of activities, thus favoring socialization.

Table 1

Interaction with people as an important outcome to compare across groups

Engagement in sharing as an activity as a possible point of comparison

Engagement in sharing

Mechanism: Emotions could be one way stories impact people and create change in behaviour

Impact of sharing in emotional outcomes. 45% increased to a more positive emotion from story telling

Good interaction may explain positive change in emotions

Factor that influenced outcome: not wanting to share, not finding value in sharing or not motivated to participate in sharing

The change is not negative―can everyone stay very cheerful all the time―its ok to be just cheerful.

Mechanism: interaction with others may be a facilitator of change

Result: Change in emotion significant higher for story group than control group

Positive interaction within story telling as a explanation for increase in positive emotions